The New Jersey Division of Investment has increased its allocation for real estate, raising its target allocation from 5.3% to 6.3% for the 2017 fiscal year.

The amount available to invest in real estate for the new fiscal year is around $719m (€645.6m), based on current total plan assets of $71.5bn.

New Jersey said it would deploy capital to various real estate structures and strategies across geographic regions as the team identifies opportunities throughout the year.

The pension fund typically invests in a mixture of core, value-add and opportunistic, placing capital into traditional and non-traditional property types.

New Jersey has tended to allocate capital through closed and open-ended funds, separate accounts and joint ventures.

It produced an 11.8% return on real estate in 2016, its best-performing asset class over the period.

The pension fund has a real estate portfolio covering 5.1% of total plan assets, as at the end of May, putting the asset class in the middle of the 2-9% range where it can invest in real estate.