Among the many consequences of the GFC was an overriding yearning among LPs for more control. This desire permeated many facets of their investment portfolios, prompting some deep discussions about risk, reliance on advice and the true value of active management.

Within real estate, this translated into a loss in confidence in pooled funds, and a new focus on co-investment programmes. The former had been found to be overleveraged and incapable of adequately riding the storm of the global economic slowdown, while the latter seemed to offer a tantilising glimpse of a more transparent and measured way of accessing property returns. More recently, explains Ilkka Tomperi, head of real estate investments for Finland’s Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company, the situation has stabilised, but investors still favour the ability to tailor their portfolio construction and have more of a say over capital deployment. “Co-investment programmes allow LPs to twist their sector and geogra