The Vermont State Retirement System has increased its allocation for real estate from 6% to 8%.
The US pension fund told IPE Real Estate it had yet to decide when any searches for the new capital would begin or what its investment focus would be.
Based on the pension fund’s current total plan assets of $3.5bn (€3.2bn), the new allocation will give the pension fund an additional $70m to invest in real estate going forward.
Vermont State’s decision was based on the recommendation of its investment staff and consultant NEPC.
Both will be involved in any future investment searches.
Until now, Vermont has invested only in funds or limited partnerships for its real estate portfolio.
It has a history of investing capital in core and opportunistic real estate, through a mixture of open-ended and closed-end funds.
The fund made a $40m commitment to the Siguler Guff Distressed Real Estate Opportunities Fund II in 2014.
Around $23m of the commitment has been contributed.
The fund had an $877m capital raise, concluded in January last year.
Vermont uses the NCREIF Property and the NCREIF ODCE indices as benchmarks.
Its real estate allocation is held in the overall alternatives asset class.
