Australia's uncertain political landscape is a far cry from the Brexit woes impacting Britain's real estate funds, but last week's indecisive election outcome has taken its first victim with ratings agency S&P Global downgrading Defence Housing Australia.The voter backlash that left Malcolm Turnbull's Coalition government struggling to stay in power has prompted S&P Global to revise its outlook for the government-owned property fund that provides housing for defence force families.Defence Housing Australia (DHA), controlled by the federal government's finance and defence departments, is underpinned by a cohort of private investors who buy defence force homes on the promise of 10-year rental guarantees and zero vacancy rates.It manages a $10 billion property portfolio that was in the news earlier this year when the Finance Department, without explanation, asked the Australian Federal Police to investigate the organisation.S&P Global earlier this week revised its outlook for Australia's coveted AAA credit rating to negative, a move which prompted a wave of political handwringing and finger-pointing.The ratings outlook for DHA was tied to Australia's, S&P Global said."In our opinion, there is an 'extremely high' likelihood that the Australian government would provide extraordinary support to DHA. As a result, we have revised the outlook on DHA to negative and affirmed the AA+ ratings," it said.  
The ratings downgrade follows warnings that continued political uncertainty will impact on the commercial property sector.Cushman & Wakefield research director John Sears, who has developed a 'government popularity gauge', said his research showed a definite correlation between a government's popularity and its impact on retail sales, business and consumer confidence.A minority government or a fractious Senate, combined with global volatility, would present a risk to business and consumer confidence in the next parliamentary term, he said.Political uncertainty was likely to prompt consumers to save rather than spend and in the short term may prompt commercial tenants to defer decisions to relocate or expand.The uncertainty caused by Britain's decision to leave the European Union this week prompted four more UK property funds to freeze withdrawals as investors sought to dump real estate holdings in the aftermath of the Brexit vote.Henderson Global Investors, Columbia Threadneedle Investments and Canada Life suspended trading in at least $7.4 billion of funds.Aberdeen Fund Managers Ltd cut the value of a property fund by 17 per cent and briefly halted redemptions so that investors who asked for their money back have time to reconsider."The problem with open-ended funds is you do start to have panic selling, so you really have no choice but to suspend the fund," said Jason Hollands, managing director at investment firm Tilney Bestinvest. "There's an inevitability to this now."Investors are pulling money from UK property funds as analysts warn that London office values could fall by as much as 20 per cent within three years of the country leaving the EU.During the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, real estate funds were similarly hit by redemptions and forced to halt withdrawals, contributing to a slump in property prices that saw values drop more than 40 per cent from their peak in Britain.Wednesday's moves brings the number of UK firms curbing redemptions to seven since the   June 23 vote.With Bloomberg