After some brutal passages in the 2000s, many institutional investors are seeking diversification and returns in “niche” property sectors.

And for good reason. In recent decades, entire core sectors of the real estate universe have shown an unnerving propensity to deliver gut punches to investors, including most prominently and recently U.S. office-market properties.

However, none of the major property sectors have been immune to sudden plunges, such as those that struck the industrial and residential categories during the global financial crisis (GFC) years of 2008–2009.

For example, values in the U.S. residential sector were cut in half during the GFC, as measured by a proxy for the market, the FTSE Nareit Equity Residential Index.

Though not as much discussed as the great “housing bubble” of 2008–2009, the declines in industrial were even steeper, indeed breathtaking, with the FTSE Nareit Equity Industrial Index down more than 80 percent at