During the past few months, investors, managers and consultants participated in Editorial Advisory Board meetings for each of Institutional Real Estate, Inc’s regional publications to discuss the most pressing issues facing the real estate investment industry. The editorial board of Institutional Real Estate Americas met in Northern California on 9–11 September; the editorial board of Institutional Real Estate Europe met in Germany on 24–26 September; and the editorial board of Institutional Real Estate Asia Pacific met in Singapore on 22–24 October. Editors Loretta Clodfelter, Marek Handzel and Dr Jennifer Molloy discuss highlights from the regional events.

For at least a few decades, we’ve been talking about how the cow that most of the investment managers out there have been milking (the defined benefit pension fund cow) has been getting skinnier and skinnier. With the growth in the DB pension fund market slowed to a trickle and in some cases starting to shrink, and limited access to the much faster growing DC pension fund market, most real estate investment managers in search of new markets for their investment management capabilities have been turning to the individual investor market. The good news is this market is gigantic and growing even faster than the DC pension fund market. The bad news is it has been highly fragmented and poorly served in the past by mostly smaller, undercapitalised, underresourced investment managers who have too often failed to deliver investment performance.

A new real estate investment cycle is gathering momentum in early 2025, and there is a general consensus that the United Kingdom is leading the European, and perhaps even the global, recovery. As M&G Real Estate argued in early December in its Global Real Estate Outlook white paper, the United Kingdom has navigated a prolonged period of uncertainty and emerged with renewed momentum, providing attractive opportunities for investors to increase allocations.

INREV says its latest Consensus Indicator figures show positive sentiment is growing over prospects for the non-listed European real estate market. The index’s headline number was 57.8 in December 2024, up from 55.8 in September 2024 and the highest the figure has reached since INREV started tracking the market consensus in March 2023. A Consensus Indicator number of above 50 represents growth.

Vacancy rates for large logistics buildings will fall by 100 basis points or more in Europe and the United States during 2025, says Prologis. In a new report entitled Seven Bold Predictions for 2025: Supply Chain Trends to Watch, the REIT says vacancy rates for warehouses that are 500,000 square feet (46,500 square metres) or larger in both continents will tighten due to a 65 percent year-over-year drop in 2024 of new large logistics space deliveries.

More than $23.4 billion (€22.7 billion) worth of global real estate secondaries transactions closed in 2023 — significantly greater than existing market consensus estimates of roughly $10 billion (€9.7 billion) — according to a new artificial intelligence–enhanced data capture methodology created by CBRE Investment Management.

Growing numbers of hotel operators are focused on finding and expanding alternative revenue avenues to maintain and enhance profitability. Matthew Pohlman, a partner at law firm Goodwin and co-chair of the firm’s global hospitality and leisure practice, says co-working spaces, innovative food and beverage concepts, and wellness offerings are all focal points for hotel owners and operators as sources of revenue growth.

After several years of volatility due to economic uncertainties, the commercial real estate market in the United Kingdom has shown signs of stabilisation overall in 2024. This recovery is driven by increased investor confidence and has been felt by different asset classes. For example, industrial and logistics properties have performed exceptionally well, fuelled by the growth of ecommerce and the need for last-mile delivery solutions. Separately, data centres were designated as critical national infrastructure in September 2024 by the UK government, meaning they will benefit from additional government support which has continued to attract significant investment.