All Real Assets articles in May 2009 (Online)

View all stories from this issue.

  • News

    UK seeks pension fund investment in housing

    2009-05-01T12:00:00Z

    UK - Plans to encourage pension funds to invest in private rented housing have been announced by the UK government’s Housing and Communities Agency (HCA).

  • News

    Wisconsin extends commitments

    2009-05-05T17:23:00Z

    UNITED STATES - Wisconsin State Investment Board has made two follow-on commitments to commingled funds, in a bid to preserve capital during the market downturn.

  • News

    Diversity widened performance of non-listed funds

    2009-05-05T17:25:00Z

    EUROPE - Differences in geography and leverage levels, as well as currency movements, meant European non-listed real estate funds experienced a wide range of performance levels in 2008, according to International Property Databank (IPD).

  • News

    Sustainability catches eye of pension funds

    2009-05-05T17:28:00Z

    UNITED STATES - The Bond Companies has pending investments from two pension funds for its sustainability fund as the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Pension Fund and the Teacher Retirement System for the State of Illinois have both allocated $20m (€15.3m).

  • News

    Prime office rents tumble in Q1

    2009-05-05T17:29:00Z

    EUROPE - European prime office market rents fell by 8% during the first quarter of 2009, the greatest quarterly decline ever recorded by Jones Lang LaSalle’s (JLL) European Office Property Clock index.

  • News

    Alternatives EC directive ‘too wide’ for real estate

    2009-05-05T17:31:00Z

    EUROPE - The EU’s proposed directive on alternative investment fund managers is too wide ranging in its current form and does not make enough distinction between real estate funds and other alternative investment vehicles, according to legal consultants.

  • News

    Real estate valuation model within sight?

    2009-05-05T17:32:00Z

    GLOBAL - There are signs that the long-established debate between proponents of mark-to-market valuations and champions of the German long-term sustainable approach value are beginning to move towards a compromise.

  • News

    Big fish seek smaller ponds

    2009-05-05T17:33:00Z

    GLOBAL - Large institutional investors are looking to invest with smaller, more intimate groups of ‘like-minded’ investors, according to pension fund-related investors, as concerns have arisen about commingled funds with large, often anonymous, investor bases.

  • News

    NYSTRS extends its real estate limits

    2009-05-11T17:29:00Z

    UNITED STATES - New York State Teachers Retirement System has bought a further share in a real estate backed by a European pension fund, as well as extending current management contracts.

  • News

    Gellatly leaves BlackRock for new base

    2009-05-11T17:31:00Z

    EUROPE – John Gellatly has left BlackRock as head of real estate fund of funds to join Aviva Investors’ global multi-manager team in Europe.

  • News

    Rockwood Capital hits fundraising target

    2009-05-11T17:41:00Z

    UNITED STATES - Rockwood Capital has closed the money raising on its Rockwood Capital Real Estate Partners Fund VIII just shy of its target, at $964m (€720.6m).

  • News

    Financial performance is linked to ESG - research

    2009-05-11T17:43:00Z

    EUROPE - Most European real estate fund managers believe there is a relationship between environmental performance and financial returns, according to a survey by the UK’s Environment Agency Pension Fund and Aviva Investors.

  • News

    Slowing yield compression may hint at improving sentiment - JLL

    2009-05-11T17:44:00Z

    EUROPE – The weighted average European price office yield moved out 20 basis points from 5.8% at the end of 2008 to 6%, a much smaller increase than the 50bps movement between Q3 and Q4 2008, according to Jones Lang LaSalle’s (JLL) Q1 2009 European Office Yields Report.

  • News

    Central & Eastern Europe stayed positive - IPD

    2009-05-11T17:45:00Z

    CEE - Total returns for central and eastern Europe (CEE) real estate dropped to 0.5% for 2008 from 14.2% for the previous 12 months, according to International Property Databank (IPD).

  • News

    Texas Teachers to revisit core strategy

    2009-05-18T18:00:00Z

    UNITED STATES - Teacher Retirement System of Texas is planning to invest approximately $500m (€368.2m) in core strategy real estate over the next 12 months.

  • News

    AEW widens its logistical holdings

    2009-05-18T18:02:00Z

    EUROPE - AEW Europe has made a number of logistics investments across Europe for two of its closed-ended funds.

  • News

    Illinois Municipal moves MS assets

    2009-05-18T18:06:00Z

    UNITED STATES - Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund has become one of the first pension funds to transfer a separate account from Morgan Stanley Real Estate to another manager.

  • News

    Do your ‘debt’ due diligence - Partners Group (amended)

    2009-05-18T18:07:00Z

    GLOBAL - Debt is the new investment buzzword but a warning has been sounded about the critical importance of performing thorough due diligence on real estate debt products.

  • News

    F&C Reit sees opportunity in distress

    2009-05-18T18:11:00Z

    GLOBAL - F&C REIT Asset Management has launched its first fund, an opportunistic institutional vehicle targeting distressed situations in the UK and with an internal rate of return (IRR) of more than 20%.

  • News

    German investors to increase local exposure

    2009-05-18T18:14:00Z

    GERMANY - More than one-third of institutional investors active in the German real estate markets intend to increase their exposure to the region this year, according to German investment group Estavis.