A growing amount of Asian capital is heading into European real estate fund vehicles, according to Stephen Miles, managing director, EMEA capital markets at CBRE.

A growing amount of Asian capital is heading into European real estate fund vehicles, according to Stephen Miles, managing director, EMEA capital markets at CBRE.

Speaking last week at PropertyEU's Outlook Investment Briefing at the Paris office of law firm Taylor Wessing, Miles noted that the US continues to accounts for a chunky 40-50% of global institutional capital but that Asian investors are finally becoming more active.

That said, some of them may have been standing on the sidelines for a bit too long given the falling yield spreads for prime property. ‘Many Asian investors have been trying to co-invest through joint ventures and club deals but they are not as fast at making decisions. We’re seeing less Asian money going into direct property and more into funds.’

Miles sees more Asian capital heading into large fund vehicles. ‘Asian capital is going to have to go into these funds and give up the control that they wanted to have because they keep missing those opportunities.’

One consequence of this trend, Miles said, is that the bigger funds will get bigger while the smaller will get smaller. 'Nobody ever got fired for putting their money into a Blackstone fund.'