Taiwan’s Public Service Pension Fund has outsourced $150m (€137.6m) for its global listed real estate mandate, according to a statement on its website.

The allocation marks the first time the pension fund, which has $19bn in assets under management, has invested in the sector.

Cornerstone Real Estate Advisors and Cohen & Steers were selected for the global listed real estate programme, with $75m each given to the two managers. 

It will be benchmarked against the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed index.

For the fund’s listed infrastructure mandate, the company recently chose Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management and Cohen & Steers, each of which received $75m in March.

The performance will be benchmarked against the Brookfield Global Infrastructure Composite index.

Investment in listed real estate was -4.6%, compared with -4.1% for the benchmark index. 

The infrastructure mandate has so far registered a loss of 1.9%, underperforming the benchmark, which was down 0.57% for the period. 

The latest tranches represent only half of the combined $600m for infrastructure and listed real estate.

Officials said investment of the remaining amount would depend on market conditions. 

Taiwan’s Public Service Pension Fund last year began the search for four investment managers to run its first allocations to listed real estate and infrastructure. 

The pension fund issued a request for proposal (RFP) for four $150m mandates, split evenly between real estate and infrastructure.

Faced with low yields on domestic real estate investments, Taiwanese institutional investors, including pension funds, have been gradually increasingly their investment in overseas real estate and infrastructure. 

Taiwan’s Labor Pension Fund selected investment managers to run its first global listed real estate portfolio last year

The retirement fund – the older of Taiwan’s major pension funds – is investing $200m in listed property and a further $200m in listed infrastructure securities, the Bureau of Labor Funds confirmed.