The salad days of real estate investing are long behind us. But that hasn’t stopped emerging managers — loosely defined as firms with no more than $750 million and three funds under management — from proliferating in recent years, even as the bar that investors have set for manager selection has gotten even higher. Few pension funds have established emerging manager programs because the cost is steep. Despite all of this, many of the people in and around the emerging manager business still get frothy about the topic.

There is a great deal of variation in the prime or class A rents achieved in different cities across the world. Prime rents at city level can be analysed to explain why rents vary between cities. Property investment returns are essentially city-driven (rather than country-driven) and, as a result of on-going urban change, it is vital to be able to pick those cities that will outperform.

You could smell the brain cells burning when members of the Institutional Real Estate, Inc. brain trust gathered for their annual fall meeting in Southern California. Specifically, the 75 members of The Institutional Real Estate Letter – North America’s Editorial Advisory Board came together to discuss the overarching economic and real estate issues of the day.