Real Estate Fund Management: Non-Listed Funds and the Risk-Reward Space

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Business economics - Banking, Stock Exchanges, Insurance, Accounting, Cass Business School, language: English, abstract: This essay examines the ability of investors to take desired positions in the risk-reward space by building a portfolio of non-listed funds of different investment styles. The question is examined from the viewpoint of a major institutional investor not subject to meaningful capital constraints. While it is acknowledged that there might be significant practical barriers when implementing the desired portfolio strategy, the essay focuses on the basic theoretical viability. The latest research on non-listed property fund performance was drawn upon. Furthermore, data from the Association of Real Estate Funds (AREV), the European Association for Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate Vehicles (INREV) and the Investment Property Databank (IPD) was used for illustrative purposes. To begin with, a brief introduction to non-listed funds and the concept of risk and reward is given. Subsequently, the methodologies applied by AREF and INREV to classify non-listed property funds are illustrated. Thereafter, the historic performance achieved by different styles is discussed. Then, factors determining the INREV style classifications are compared with the performance drivers identified by recent research. The findings are summarized in the last section.