School Employees Retirement System of Ohio (Ohio SERS) is planning to invest up to $200m (€176.7m) in real assets in fiscal 2021, most of which will be allocated to real estate.

According to the $14.2bn pension fund, majority of the capital set aside for real assets in the fiscal year beginning 1 July will be invested in real estate because the pension fund already has close to $350m in unfunded commitments to infrastructure.

Real assets accounts for 16.3% of the pension funds portfolio

For the real estate investments, the pension fund said it plans to target demographic-driven real estate strategies that include property types like data centres, life science and medical office buildings instead of GDP-driven sectors such as traditional office assets.

The expectation is that these sectors will yield higher rent growth and more durable income than normal office properties, it said.

Ohio SERS, which plans to mainly target US real estate but could consider non-US funds, said it will also consider opportunities arising from the coronavirus pandemic and the economic slowdown.

For infrastructure, Ohio SERS will consider co-investments with its existing infrastructure managers.

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