GLOBAL - ANREV, INREV and NCREIF are to launch a global index. The Asian, European and US real estate associations will pool together data from 670 non-listed funds with €519bn in assets under management.

The news comes two months after IPD said it would create a US property index in conjunction with the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA), as part of its wider plans to establish a global index.

While IPD's index will focus on a universe of investable open-ended funds, aimed at core real estate investors, the ANREV/INREV/NCREIF index will include data from both open-ended and closed-ended funds.

Patrick Kanters, chairman of INREV and global real estate managing director at APG, said the index would contribute to industry demand for universal performance benchmarks and standardisation, and would enable asset-liability modelling.

Alan Dalgleish, director of research and professional standards at ANREV, told IP Real Estate: "We felt globalisation was a bit of a theme, and that our members would value an index developed by us as non-profit organizations."

He said discussions between ANREV and INREV, which originated the idea, and NCREIF had gone "smoothly". NCREIF was "receptive to a straightforward proposition", he said. "None of the parties involved would have done it without the approval of their boards."

Discussions on the composition of the ANREV index are ongoing. While INREV and NCREIF will be able to provide copious regional data for the index, ANREV will pull additional data together over the next few months based on its pan-Asian index.

Its Asian index launched last November with 50, mostly Australian, contributors. By October, ANREV expects the number to be 100, including Singapore-based groups, as well as contributors from China, Hong Kong and Japan.

"There are still a few more Australians we'd like to get but it has developed as a pan-Asian list," said Dalgleish.

The additional contributors will be announced at ANREV's annual conference in October, along with "more robust comparisons" between INREV and ANREV. "Integration of the data will be the next issue for the index - but I don't think there's anything insurmountable," said Dalgleish.

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