At the close of business Aug. 31, 2016, S&P Dow Jones Indices and MSCI added an 11th sector to the Global Industry Classification Standard: real estate. In the months since real estate was moved out of the financial sector and assigned a top-level sector classification, it is difficult to see how much of an impact this has made.

“We still haven’t really seen the effect that we have been expecting to see from last September’s change in the GICS system,” says Brad Case, senior vice president – research and industry information with the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts.

“The GICS classification was very much a recognition that real estate was a separate asset class. So it was a recognition of something that had been reality for a long time. Because it was a long time coming as well, a lot of investors anticipated the impact on share prices,” says Cedrik Lachance, managing director at Green Street Advisors.

Scott Crowe, chief i