Global asset management firm Invesco announced on Wednesday that the Invesco Global Real Estate Fund (GREF) has been made available to UK defined contribution (DC) pension schemes through a number of investment DC platforms.
Invesco Real Estate, the firm’s real estate investment arm, has worked with a large UK DC pension scheme advised by Lane, Clark & Peacock (LCP) to bring about this pioneering development. It marks the first time a fund such as GREF has been made available to DC schemes through these channels, making it significantly easier for them to invest in the global property market.
A number of major UK DC pension schemes have already made a significant initial investment in GREF as part of their default strategy for members through the platforms. Invesco expects other DC schemes to follow, looking to benefit from straightforward access to institutional-quality global direct real estate, an asset class that has traditionally been hard for DC schemes to access. Prior to this, DC investors were limited to investing solely in UK direct property funds.
GREF was launched in 2019 to give institutional investors, including DC schemes, access to global direct real estate, an asset class that Invesco Real Estate believes should be considered a core component of DC investment portfolios given the need for income, its inherent stability and, historically, the lack of correlations with traditional assets.
‘We’re very excited to be at the forefront of this developing market space, matching Invesco’s vision that opening a broader spectrum of investments can help DC members grow their pension savings for when they retire,’ said Simon Redman, managing director, Global Client Portfolio Management at Invesco Real Estate.
‘Through the work with Invesco, it now means that DC Schemes can have access to the global real estate opportunities that exist beyond a solely UK-focused property portfolio,’ added Stephen Budge, partner and DC investment strategy lead at LCP. ‘We believe that direct property is an attractive diversifier for DC schemes, and the benefit of Invesco’s global strategy is that it gives our clients immediate exposure to a well-established property portfolio managed by a team with a strong track record in the US, Europe and Asia.’
