Last month, I wrote about some of the people who have made major contributions to the development of the Institutional Real Estate, Inc platform since our very beginning in 1987. These included Larry Hull of Larco Advisors, who founded what is now known as the Pacific Pension & Investment Institute; Stephen Tomczak of Stephen Tomczak and Associates; and Paul Sach, one of the founders of RREEF, which continues today as part of DWS.

Are offices the “new retail”? Well, yes, no, and maybe. It all depends on who you ask and how the question is interpreted. At a helicopter level, the comparison is based on fragmentation. Retail split into pieces some time ago. These days, well-located shopping parks and prime inner-city high street stores easily outshine lacklustre suburban department stores and half-empty shopping centres. Between these two points, retail assets fight to stay relevant as ecommerce delivery drivers weave in between them and nearby supermarkets aggressively discount every item known to humankind. Within the office sector, a comparable dissolution appears to be taking place. From prime CBD towers and plug-in-and-play offerings, to back-office operational outposts and ghost town business parks, the division among office types looks more pronounced by the day and appears to be here to stay.

With buying a home increasingly out of reach, more people are renting and for longer periods of time. With chronic undersupply of housing in many major markets, it is no surprise institutional investors are finding the living sector so attractive.