Panelists highlight opportunities for niche strategies at VIP Americas 2022

A lot of recent talk has centered on what’s in store for niche strategies such as single-family rental (SFR), data centers and self-storage. This was particularly true at IREI’s 2022 Visions, Insights & Perspectives (VIP) – Americas conference, which took place Jan. 24–26 in Carlsbad, Calif.

This topic brought Dana Hamilton, head of real estate, at Pretium; TJ Hofheimer, senior director of portfolio management at National Real Estate Advisors; and Caleb Mercer, managing director at Heitman to the stage on the last day of the conference. Hamilton discussed opportunities in SFR, Hofheimer spoke about data centers, and Mercer shared insights on self-storage. Throughout the discussion, it became apparent that there are similarities between these strategies — that the pandemic has shone a light on the resilience and demand for these burgeoning property types.

Take the European self-storage market as an example. According to Mercer, this product is still maturi