Real estate’s recent strong performance has been due to a sustained period of slowly improving occupier market fundamentals during the long, drawn-out, bumpy economic recovery that followed the global financial crisis. It is also courtesy of strong capital markets fueled by an extended period of exceptional monetary policy that has included unprecedented quantitative easing measures. With many investors hungry for recurrent income, real estate’s ability to provide it has made the asset class a focus of attention.

How well has real estate done?

Real estate has had a good run over the past six years; globally, it has outperformed equities and fixed income. Three different measures provide an indication of real estate’s performance, and all have been strong since the global financial crisis:

•          Direct real estate: The global all-property total return was 9.2 percent per year for 2010 through 2015 (unleveraged and l