Real estate’s recent strong performance has been due to a sustained period of slowly-improving occupier market fundamentals during the long, drawn-out bumpy economic recovery following the global financial crisis. It is also courtesy of strong capital markets fuelled by an extended period of exceptional monetary policy that has included unprecedented quantitative easing (QE) measures. With many investors hungry for recurrent income, real estate’s ability to provide it has made the asset class a focus of attention.

How well has real estate done?

Real estate has had a good run over the past six years. Globally, it has outperformed equities and fixed income. Globally, there are three different measures that provide an indication of real estate’s performance.

All have been strong since the global financial crisis:

•          Direct real estate: The global All Property total return was 9.2 percent per year in