Ever since Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff outlined the “this time is different” syndrome in their 2011 book This time is different: A panoramic view of eight centuries of financial crises, economists and investment market researchers have been wary of using this analogy when analysing market performance across asset classes.

Their research is a good starting point for what we are currently seeing in real assets. Once again, we are going through a period of uncertainty leaving many institutional investors with exposure to real estate wondering whether “this time is different”. I was recently invited to speak on a conference panel, titled Clash of asset classes, which illustrated this general unease among investors. It struck me how deeply some of the participants at the conference were concerned about the outlook for real estate as an asset class. One of the takeaways from the discussions at the event was the view — shared by some investors —