Real estate has been a prime beneficiary of the pension fund sector’s efforts to diversify away from equities. “Pension funds have traditionally had 3% to 5% of their total allocation in real estate but those already in the sector have now increased this to around 10%,” says Mike Marshall, executive managing director at CBRE Investors. He has also seen a large number of UK pension fund investors (including some large final-salary schemes) investing in real estate for the first time. “The greatest change is the property unit trusts,” he says. “They used to represent 5% to 10% of the IPD universe but now this is more like 30%.” These vehicles...
