Orange County Employees Retirement System (OCERS) plans to invest up to $300m (€258m) in real estate during its next fiscal year but has acknowledged it might be unable to achieve this due to market timing.
In a board meeting report, the pension fund’s consultant, The Townsend Group, said: “We are late in the current real estate cycle which can pose significant capital allocation challenges as 2018-2020 entry points may be at or near peak values.”
OCERS wants to invest up to $175m in open-ended core property funds and up to $125m in non-core real estate during the fiscal year ending 30 June 2019.
The pension fund is looking to reserve capital for non-core strategies in case there is a market downturn.
Townsend is advising OCERS to increase its exposure to the industrial sector, maintain its weighting to residential markets and decrease its exposure to office and retail sectors.
The consultant also recommends adding more exposure to western US markets, decreasing its interest in properties in the East, South and Midwest.
