With real estate-rich defined benefit plans shrinking and real estate-poor defined contribution plans expanding rapidly, the real estate investment industry is feeling a sense of urgency to make deeper DC plan inroads. A new research report has concluded that adding a 10 percent mix of listed and unlisted real estate would lead to improved retirement outcomes for defined contribution plan participants.

2015 will be the year when Europe realises that if everyone acts like Germany, then Germany can’t be Germany anymore. And if Germany can’t be Germany, Europe can’t grow, unless Germany lets the European Central Bank buy European sovereign debt. Except that wouldn’t be very German!

Russia is not making it easy for investors. Imagine you are a pension fund portfolio manager bringing an opportunity to your CIO. You, of course, start out with a positive: Russia’s $3.5 trillion (€2.8 trillion) economy is the sixth largest in the world by GDP. If you are a global investor, that sounds like an economy you would want to be part of. But that plus comes with a caveat.

The real estate investment trust, or REIT, was until recently dismissed as the retail stock investor’s friend, a relatively predictable vehicle to earn some steady dividends and own the kind of properties that non-billionaires cannot. But with trillions of capital pouring into the vaults of institutional property investors, the prosaic REIT is getting a long second look from big-league real estate buyers — and is looking more royal with each passing day.

Consulting company bulwiengesa AG provides the European real estate industry with the advice and data it needs to underpin investment decisions. The firm recently completed a series of well-received articles for The Letter – Europe on the countries and real estate markets of central and eastern Europe, which are agreed to be at various stages of development. Editor Richard Fleming spoke recently with director of business development and data management Thomas Vosskamp, based in Munich, about the prospects for the countries of the region and about the impact that current economic and political events are having on their development.

While to some observers it may appear that China is making progress with its stated goal of financial reform, to many “old China hands” it looks like China is preparing the public for massive write-offs of nonperforming loans and increasing distress from trusts, wealth management products and local government investment vehicles.

While concerns abound regarding the French economic situation, investors cannot seem to get enough of the country’s real estate — especially Parisian addresses. In the first nine months of the year, €16 billion was invested in French property, reports Cushman & Wakefield.

Heitman has launched a new absolute return UCITS IV compliant fund, while InfraRed Capital Partners has held a final close of its latest real estate fund.

According to Knight Frank’s latest Dublin office market outlook, strong institutional demand for commercial property in Dublin has put the Irish investment market on course for a record-breaking year.