Back in 2006, Ric Lewis, CEO and chairman of Tristan Capital Partners, a London real estate investment management firm, decided that the property market was getting a bit frothy and sold almost €1 billion worth of assets out of the portfolio that he and his team managed on behalf of institutional clients. Some of those clients exclaimed “What the heck, you’re calling off the party too early,” and demanded that their money remain invested. Other fund managers did the same and hesitated, but unlike Tristan Capital they plunged back in. The combination of the lure of cheap debt and the burden of capital in pocket was too much and they double-dipped. Most other real estate fund managers never even hesitated, they rolled on and on and …
Then came the mortgage crisis in the United States, the failure of commercial and investment banks, and the global recession of 2008 to 2010. The value of commercial