He believes, too, that the authorities – especially the Reserve Bank – believe the market should be encouraged to open up further because of the shortage of capital and competition to the major banks in mortgages.

“The banks have taken a lot of the excess supply out of the market … but there is still $160 billion in cumulative outstanding debt.”

Unlike the corporate debt market, which is still similarly suffering from a shortage of capital from traditional sources, the RMBS sector pays both principal and interest regularly (most mortgages are not interest only) and therefore has a much lower risk profile.

“This is really a credit product rather than a real estate product,” Fowler said. “It’s diversified across thousands of mortgages. As the markets thaw there are lots of opportunities.”

The Spar offerings can be either comingled or through discrete mandates. They have a one-year lockup and quarterly liquidity prospects thereafter.

Spar currently manages and advises on $1 billion of mortgage pools and securities plus several “resi” and commercial property deals with a gross realisable value of  $250 million as principal.