As the world came out of the global financial crisis, those investors who had not sworn off real estate completely flocked to the corest of core investments. The flow of capital into prime assets was so swift, the central business districts of world cities, such as New York City and London, soon found themselves not only fairly priced but, arguably, overpriced. In the past couple of years, however, investors who needed low-risk core investments to feel safe have been finding they need something else to meet their return expectations. As a result, open-end funds, which generally focus on lower-risk investment strategies and sectors, saw an increase in new fund offerings about five years ago, only to see those numbers begin to decline in 2014.

According to Institutional Real Estate, Inc.’s FundTracker database, the pace of open-end funds launched in the past five years has formed a perfect bell curve. As investors re-entered the market in 2011, 16 new funds were launched. The