GLOBAL - Investors overwhelmingly oppose consolidation in the real estate investment sector, according to a survey conducted for IP Real Estate.

Speaking at IP Real Estate's Investor Forum & Awards in Amsterdam yesterday, Ian Cullen, head of systems and information standards at IPD, argued that boutique investors were still favoured by many, a fact reflected by 62% of respondents opposing further consolidation in the market.

He added that mega managers were not a popular option for many, and conceded when asked that some of them had yet to put into place policies to avoid conflicts of interest when it came to issues such as which of a number of funds would access a piece of prime property.

Turning to the topic of sustainable developments, he said it was supported "in principle", but argued "the industry needs to get its act together" if it wished to tackle sustainable development in a serious fashion.

The comments came after a straw poll of attendees and the results of the investor survey revealed that, in each of the groups, close to 70% believed that sustainable investment was being stunted by fears that returns would not justify the initial investment.

Discussing the potential impact of further regulation for the market, an overwhelming 84% of attendees did not think this would make investing more attractive to institutionals.

However, Cullen countered that, if the right regulation was introduced, this would only serve to increase trust in the industry, which could only be a positive.

"In the medium term, we will come to love Solvency III," he joked, in reference to the incoming second generation of the capital buffer regulation.

 

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