Orange County Employees Retirement System (OCERS) is considering issuing up to $375m (€346m) worth of real estate commitments in 2024, the pension fund disclosed in a meeting document.

The pacing plan for the current year includes placing $150m into two core/core plus real estate, the pension fund’s real estate consultant Townsend disclosed in the meeting document.

OCERS did not make core real estate investments in 2023 due to market uncertainty and Townsend expects further weakness in the near term, prompting a cautious re-entry strategy.

The pension fund is expected to consider discounted secondary market purchases, participation in new core funds targetting undervalued assets, and exploring alternative investments with specialist managers to diversify its portfolio.

Another part of the core strategy would be to evaluate current core open-ended fund positions and consider further rebalancing or consolidating certain positions to focus on boosting returns and delivering appropriate core portfolio objectives.

The remaining pacing capital of up to $225m is expected to be placed into up to four non-core commitments of between $50m to $75m each as the pension fund explores areas like data centres, storage facilities, rental houses as well as real estate credit.

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