Investors increase allocation to social real estate

Strong performance of social real estate during the COVID-19 crisis, and a growing and aging population, will see pension funds and other institutional investors increase their allocation to social real estate, according to Alpha Real Capital, a specialist manager of secure-income real assets.

The trend also is being supported by growing regulatory pressure, as well as investors increasing their focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations.

Alpha said there is a diverse range of investment opportunities in social real estate for pension funds and other institutional investors to consider because it estimates the sector needs at least £50 billion (€59 billion/$69 billion) of new funding to address a huge shortfall in modern, efficient, purpose-built housing, education and healthcare stock.

“A distinctive feature of the social real estate sectors is that demand is driven by long-term demographics patterns, rather than shorter-term econom