During the early days of the pandemic, institutional investment activity in real estate — much like everything else — came to a virtual halt.

“For 90 days, it was just pure lockdown,” recalls Pat Kendall, a managing director and partner at real estate private equity firm Ascentris. “If investors had deals that were close to the finish line, they pushed those through to completion. But there was absolutely no talk about new business, and that was pretty much the case through last fall.”

What a difference a year makes.

As the global economy rebounds and vaccination rates climb, particularly in the United States, institutional investors are not only staying the course when it comes to real estate — with certain caveats — but some appear to be making up for lost ground when it comes to deploying capital.

The mean target allocation to real estate among U.S. investors has risen slightly to 9.7 percent of total assets this year, from 9.5 percent