Real estate portfolios are often built around the four main “food groups” — office, industrial, retail and multifamily. Those traditional methods appear to be falling by the wayside with capital that is expanding into a wider variety of property categories.

The world has changed dramatically since the “norms” around real estate investing were created in the 1970s and 1980s. The digital economy has fundamentally changed the demand for real estate. Additionally, demographic and behavioral changes are fueling secular shifts and sending strong tailwinds into nontraditional sectors, such as self-storage, senior housing and single-family rental properties, among others.

Some investors are recognizing that their real estate portfolios don’t map as well to the modern economy as they would like.

“The joke I use is that you have an analog real estate portfolio in a digital world, and what we’re seeing is an increasing recognition of that,” says John Wort