ING Real Estate Select attracts EUR 500m in H1

ING Real Estate Select, the multi-manager investment business, attracted around EUR 500 mln in inflows from European institutional investors, mainly in the Netherlands, in the first half of 2010 for placement with managers targeting the US and Asian property markets.

Pieter Hendrikse, CEO ING REIM Europe and responsible for ING Real Estate Select said: 'In the wake of the economic crisis there is clearly reduced appetite for risk, with both small and large institutional investors now preferring investments with low levels of leverage. There is also demand for true real estate fiduciary managers, who put their clients’ interests first, managing portfolios by optimising risk versus returns and valuations relative to the cost of capital, while maintaining broad diversification in their investments.'

Jan Meulenbelt, global head, ING Real Estate Select said: 'The high level of inflows over the last few months represents an endorsement of our policy to protect our investors by holding back capital from the market while real estate values were falling around the world in 2008 and 2009. We are now seeing strong interest from pension funds and insurers to re-enter the real estate sector with the US and Asian markets as frontrunners at this point in the cycle, though we believe the European markets will soon follow.'

Meulenbelt added that there is a growing trend towards investment in real estate multi-managers by balanced funds. These are generally looking for a mixture of safety, income and modest capital appreciation in their portfolios and tend to retain a relatively fixed allocation across investment asset classes.