Martin Hurst
NewsReal estate industry must raise professional standards – PGGM
EUROPE – Real estate needs to raise its level of professional standards – including performance measurement – to those of other asset classes, according to Guido Verhoef, head of private real estate at PGGM.
- Features
Moving mountains overnight
With a career spanning more than 23 years in all real estate disciplines ING Real Estate Investment Management CEO David Blight knows as well as anyone the challenges facing institutional investors in real estate today. Speed of reaction is one of them, as he explains to Martin Hurst ...
- Features
Keeping up the pace
Founded in 1979, the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA) has over 1,800 members, representing over 470 member firms across the US, Canada, Europe and Asia. Members include pension funds, property and investment managers and REITs. Its stated mission is to “serve and educate” its members and to act as a “steward for the industry”. PREA’s CEO, Gail Haynes, explains her view of the institutional market to Martin Hurst
- Features
Room for manoeuvre
The National Pensions Reserve Fund was set up in 2001 with a view to part-financing the cost to the state of social welfare and public service pensions from 2025 onwards. Real estate was introduced in 2004. Ian Gleeson, the fund’s head of property, explains the rationale behind the decision, the ...
- Features
Germany raises its game
Until recently Germany’s real estate industry was lacking adequate representation to drive its interests forward and maximise its potential. In June the ZIA was established to rectify the situation. Chairman Eckart John von Freyend, explains the challenges ahead to Martin Hurst
- Features
Moving up the curve
Chuck Leitner joined RREEF in 1988 and became a partner in the firm in 1996. Deutsche Bank acquired RREEF in 2002 and, in 2004, Leitner became the global head of real estate and infrastructure. Based in New York he restructured the real estate and infrastructure business which included ...
- Features
Capital flowing?
Following INREV’s Investment Intentions Survey a roundtable was convened to discuss the results and develop themes arising from them
- Features
Too much control?
A heavy bias towards investing locally – and directly – is a hallmark of Swedish institutional investment in real estate. Martin Hurst examines why
- Features
Club class
Structure and efficiency are the name of the game in Denmark but a preoccupation with outright ownership and a somewhat unwieldy domestic market may hinder progress, as Martin Hurst reports
- Features
Cool, calm, collected
Mutual Insurance Company Pension Fennia is a public authority pension fund based in Helsinki. The fund was established in 1998 and today has a solid presence in the market. Real estate has been a strong performer in the portfolio but the fund’s plans to ...
- Features
Expert city
The emergence of India, red tape in Hungary and the thorny issue of leverage were among the subjects covered at the recent European Public Real Estate conference in Budapest. Martin Hurst reports
- Features
Globalisation gaining ground
At the recent AFIRE annual membership meeting in Boston, delegates explored the growing influence of emerging markets on the real estate sector. Martin Hurst reports
- Features
Leave nothing to chance
ATP is the supplementary pension scheme in Denmark; all working people pay into this fund to top up their basic retirement income. The fund has been running for more than 40 years now and today has assets of over €50bn. It is the largest pension fund in Denmark and among ...
- Features
It will be different this time
Foreign capital flooding into UK real estate is forcing UK investors to confront past traumas and invest abroad. Martin Hurst reports
- News
Planned Hungarian first pillar reforms "insufficient"
HUNGARY - The Hungarian first pillar requires radical "paradigmatic" reform, according to Lajos Bokros, CEO and professor of economics and public policy at the Central European University in Budapest.
- News
Timberland asset class an advantage for investors – Watson Wyatt
GLOBAL - A new report by Watson Wyatt highlights the potential of timberland as an asset class for institutional investors. Timberlands are forested areas that are used to harvest wood.
- News
Portuguese pension returns weaken - Watson Wyatt
PORTUGAL - Portuguese pension funds are expected to return 1.9% for the first six months of this year after generating 3.7% for the first quarter, according to a survey by Watson Wyatt’s Lisbon office.
- Features
A noise about silence
The much delayed reform of the pension system is finally due to be implemented at the beginning of 2008. Not a moment too soon. While the date has slipped continuously over the years the urgency for reform grows in sympathy, as the fortunes of the new generation of pension funds ...
- Special Report
Breaking down the barriers
While investor portfolios become more global investor knowledge on what their rights are as shareholders and how to exercise them in the cross-border context struggles to keep up – to put it mildly. Cue the new handbook from the Eurosif, Active Share Ownership in Europe. Eurosif notes that “the publication ...
