Essex Pension Fund, part of the UK’s local authority pension system, is looking for a global property manager for a £250m (€282m) mandate.

The £6bn fund said it would consider separate accounts, open-ended funds and closed-ended solutions.

It was not necessarily looking to allocate to real estate debt or listed real estate, but said it may allow an allocation of no more than 20% of the mandate.

The successful manager must be able to “demonstrate a global perspective on real estate and be able to give objective advice on global real estate markets (private and public) and on investment timing”, it said.

Applicants must manage at least £1.5bn of real estate globally, with at least £500m invested in each of Europe and North America, and £300m in Asia Pacific. At least three experienced real estate professionals must be based in each of these regions.

The pension fund already invests in UK property via Aviva Investors. According to its most recent annual report the market value of this portfolio stood at £618m as at the end of March 2018.

Essex is part of the ACCESS asset pool that has been set up by 11 pension funds in the UK’s local government pension scheme (LGPS).

Brunel Pension Partnership, another of the eight LGPS pools, recently announced £340m of commitments to two UK long-lease property funds.

Essex’s procurement is managed by Hymans Robertson. The details are available here.