The global financial crisis of 2008 changed everything.  Almost overnight, investors moved from a world of apparent certainty and stability to a world of great uncertainty and potential instability. Few would now argue against the conventional wisdom that uncertainty is here to stay, for the foreseeable — or unforeseeable — future.

As its name suggests, the crisis has left no one around the world — and certainly no investor or asset class — untouched. Real estate, for all its local roots, is now an unashamedly global investment asset, open to the free movement of capital seeking to optimize riskadjusted returns.

In this brave — or, many would say, fearful — new world, most investors are looking for solidity rather than excitement; possible losses frequently loom larger in their imaginations than possible gains. Real estate professionals can justifiably argue that their asset class has an important role in this kind of envi