Many managers are beginning to construct the target-date funds to resemble the portfolios of defined benefit pension funds, with the same alternative investments, including real estate. This is tricky due to the propensity — or at least the possibility — of defined contribution employees to pull money from their accounts, and investments such as real estate being essentially illiquid.

Five years into the global economy’s recovery, interest rates remain low by historical standards. As such, investors’ hunt for yield is intensifying. Fixed-income returns are low, and stock market returns are volatile, pushing investors into alternatives such as real estate.

The members of the Editorial Advisory Board of Institutional Real Estate Americas gathered at the beginning of September for two and a half days of discussion on the direction of and strategies in the institutional real estate marketplace.

In recent months, a series of major economic events occurred in China, starting with a stock market sell-off that sparked investor concern around the globe. Meanwhile, U.S. real estate investors have been watching things unfold safely outside the impact zone of this economic malaise, treating it primarily as a peripheral issue. In all likelihood, that is the right approach — but what if it’s not?

Like other commercial real estate property types, the senior housing and care market is hot. “Are we in a bubble?” is being asked frequently. While that question is answered easily in hindsight, it is not as easy to answer in foresight — unfortunately.

With cross-border capital flow volumes unlikely to diminish, currency movements have a significant impact on returns for real estate investors.

Demographic shifts — the impact of retiring baby boomers and the rise of the millennial generation — likely will have the most significant impact on real estate in the near and long term. So concludes a Counselors of Real Estate report that identifies the top 10 issues that will affect real estate development and investing during 2015–2016.

Very Serious People have stubbornly maintained over the past five years that interest rates (and inflation) would rise and increased interest rates would necessarily increase cap rates (and depress property prices). But compelling evidence contradicts the received wisdom: Rising interest rates will not necessarily increase unleveraged property capitalization rates and, thereby, depress prices.

What issue is at the top of most investors’ minds these days? Pricing, and whether now is the right time to be selling.

Investments in Boston are starting to amount to a pretty big hill of beans.

The amount of capital flowing to the real estate asset class has continued to increase year-over-year, as reflected by the growth in total real estate assets under management reported by the 208 firms in the Global Investment Managers 2015 survey.

It is a good time to be an investor in apartments. Rents are up strongly in markets across the country, according to Zumper, an apartment search service, but especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, where a hot tech market is pumping up the apartment market.

Commercial real estate activity in the United States and Europe during the first half of the year surpassed levels seen in the same periods of 2006 and 2007.