Pension funds dominate real estate investment universe

European institutional investors’ average allocation to real estate increased from 8.1 percent in 2012 to 11.2 percent in 2019, according to INREV’s Investor Universe Comparison Study 2019, which consolidates the findings of seven Investor Universe studies undertaken in Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The Investor Universe Study covers a total assets under management of €5.67 trillion ($6.29 trillion) and a real estate AUM of €509 billion ($564 billion), as of year-end 2018.

“The significant increase in allocation over the past six years demonstrates the confidence investors have in non-listed real estate as an asset class. This is reinforced by the fact that investors’ target allocations were higher than their current allocations, at 11.9 percent across Europe, which suggests that allocations could increase further,” said Lonneke Löwik, INREV CEO. “It’s interesting to note that the increased focus on