Zurich Life Indexed Eurozone Property

The Indexed Eurozone Property Fund is a unit-linked fund that invests in an ETF managed by BNP Paribas, giving exposure to some of Europe’s leading real estate companies. It is passively managed, so it aims to track an index rather than actively picking individual stocks. The fund can also hold some cash as part of its management.

The Indexed Eurozone Property Fund focuses on Europe, with holdings across countries including France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Finland, Austria, the Republic of Ireland and Italy. Most of the underlying exposure is to eurozone property companies, although some assets may be outside the eurozone. For a euro investor, that can create currency risk, which means exchange-rate moves can affect returns.

The Indexed Eurozone Property Fund’s main holdings include Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Vonovia, Klepierre, Merlin Properties SOCIMI, Aedifica and TAG Immobilien. Other notable holdings include Gecina, Covivio, LEG Immobilien and Warehouses De Pauw. These are some of Europe’s better-known listed real estate companies.

The Indexed Eurozone Property Fund is passively managed through an ETF, so it is designed to follow an index of European property companies. It will not track the index exactly, so returns may differ slightly from the benchmark. Zurich Life also reserves the right to replace the ETF with another fund at any stage.

The main risk highlighted for the Indexed Eurozone Property Fund is currency risk, because some assets are invested outside the eurozone. Currency risk means exchange-rate changes can increase or reduce the value of the fund for a euro investor. The fund also has an SRI rating of 6, which suggests a relatively high level of risk.