UNITED STATES - Nevada Public Employees Retirement System has decided to grow its real estate portfolio through the acquisition of core assets adopting all-cash purchases.

Ken Lambert, investment officer for Nevada PERS, said the pension fund a very conservative approach to investing in real estate and chooses not to place leverage on real estate assets.

"We think now is a good time to come into the core market with an all-cash source of capital. There are going to be some good investment opportunities with some other leveraged capital out of the market."

The pension fund is looking for properties that can produce solid income returns and grow through appreciation but has no investment mandate through which it will invest in either a value-added or opportunistic strategy.

Nevada PERS increased its real estate allocation last October from 5% to 6.5% and is now ready to invest this capital into the marketplace - an amount in the range of $250m (€171.3m)

The pension fund will invest its new assets through two existing separate account discretionary managers, BlackRock Realty Advisors and Invesco Real Estate, as they between them already oversee a real estate portfolio valued at around $600m.

These new allocations should see the portfolio grow to around $850m over the next couple of years but Nevada PERS will only be investing in US real estate in the United States as it wants to growth the portfolio in the major metropolitan areas around the country.

The fund is looking to invest in existing and leased class A office buildings, shopping centres, industrial properties and apartments.

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