FINLAND - Valtion Eläkerahasto (VER), the State Pension Fund of Finland, is working to make its first commitment to a dedicated UK real estate fund as it looks to increase its overall property exposure.
Timo Löyttyniemi, managing director at VER, it is intending to commit to an investment vehicle that will target real estate investments in the UK.
The pension fund has thus far gained exposure to UK property via pan-European investments and so Löyttyniemi said now could be a good time to increase its weighting to the market.
"We think comparably [the UK] is attractive and, secondly, as we don't have a special UK instrument, it fits our portfolio needs well," he said.
This will be the first real estate investment activity on the part of VER since it committed to a pan-Asian fund of funds vehicle last year.
Löyttyniemi said the long-term aim was to increase VER's real estate exposure so that it
represented approximately 50% of its allocation to alternative asset classes.
However, he said it was impossible to give an accurate figure, because it depended on future returns in other asset classes and how the economic outlook develops.
