In late November 2011, I attended an annual REC conference for the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Korea (EUCCK) in Seoul — “How Asian Investors Will Change the Global Landscape.” The EUCCK started this conference in 2010 with the goal of helping Korean pension funds and other institutional investors who have been actively investing in European and other overseas real estate markets to better understand the investment environment.
In 2010, the conference attracted many investors and the investment managers serving them. This past November, according to the organizers, there were about 280 registered attendees, 27 percent of whom were investors. Many investors came from other countries in Asia, as well as from Europe and the United States.
For the November 2011 event, Institutional Real Estate, Inc. (IREI) organized and sponsored one of the panels, and I was invited to moderate it. The panel was “Focus on the U.S.” There was an