The global macroeconomic landscape has changed significantly in a few short years. COVID-19 caused an economic shock that continues to reverberate around the world, but the pandemic also placed significant pressure on pre-existing geopolitical tensions, boiling over most visibly in the Ukraine conflict.Meanwhile, real estate investments have become increasingly diversified over the past 10 years, with the almost 500 percent growth in transactions coming from increasingly operationally exposed subsectors.

The result is a need for a more nuanced framework to analyse real estate assets. Furthermore, a structure built on the fundamental utilisation of the space, rather than the traditional real estate asset class, enables investors to better understand the underlying risk exposures within a portfolio and drive greater diversification.

The limitations of traditional real estate thinking

Depending on which region we look at, institutional real estate markets hav