To address climate change, leading real estate funds and companies around the world are setting decarbonization and net-zero targets.

The precise measurement of social impact is in its early stages. But some property sectors like affordable housing have obvious links to social themes, and investment in these “social properties” has increased significantly over the last 10 years.

The aggregate performance of closed- and open-end real estate funds in the U.S. was strikingly similar in recent years, despite large differences in their strategy and roles in portfolios. But did some investors gain an edge through fund selection?

Global real estate investors can expose themselves to currency risk. Using a hedged index, they may better align their benchmark and investment approach and ensure currency risk is accurately treated in allocation modeling and performance attribution.

This new condensed version of ‘Listed and Private Real Estate: Putting the Pieces Back Together’ explores whether a property owned by a listed real estate company, such as a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) or a real estate management and development company, produces returns close to those of an equivalent asset that is privately owned. Specifically, how do equity market factors, financial structures and individual properties contribute to performance? This research paper uses MSCI’s...

A property owned by a listed real estate company, such as a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) or a real estate management and development company, should produce returns close to those of an equivalent asset that is privately owned. In reality, however, the results differ, especially when looking at short-term performance. The challenge for real estate investors is to be able to use both listed and direct real estate in their real estate allocations and understand the performance drivers...

A Study of the Drivers of European Listed Real Estate Performance in Association with the European Public Real Estate Association.

Real estate investors can analyze performance of direct real estate in detail. However, listed real estate, which includes public REITs, rarely offers detailed data, making it challenging to monitor a portfolio consisting of both private and public assets. Two developments are focusing issue: 1) real estate will constitute a new GICS® sector as of August 31 and 2)  many asset owners seek to globalize their real estate portfolios: adding international listed securities is a simple and...

This Research Insight presents the results of the 2013 MSCI Global Asset Owner Survey, which focuses on understanding the asset allocation processes of institutional asset owners, with a close examination of risk management of the real estate exposure. The findings come from in-person interviews with staff at 40 asset owners from around the world, representing $3.2 trillion in assets, as well as online survey responses from another 40 asset owners, representing $0.7 trillion in assets. These...