On February 14, FTSE Russell, Nareit and EPRA celebrated 15 years of their Index Series partnership with an Market Open Ceremony at the London Stock Exchange.
When the Index Series was launched in 2005, there were 307 companies in the FTSE EPRA Nareit Global Real Estate Index Series, representing a market cap of EUR 546 billion. It has now grown to 477 constituents globally, representing a total market cap of EUR 1.68 trillion. This clearly demonstrates investors’ appetite for this liquid and diversified asset class.
Waqas Samad, CEO of FTSE Russell and Group Director of the Information Services Division of the London Stock Exchange Group, stressed that real estate is a popular asset class that can be easily accessed through investing in the exchange-listed stocks of real estate companies globally. As of end 2018, reported Fund AUM benchmarked against FTSE EPRA Nareit Indexes – both active and passive globally – had grown to approximately EUR 270 billion.
On the European level, the past 15 years have seen a number of changes in the market: the development of REIT regimes across now 14 European countries; companies moving into an operating-style; and the growth of new niche sectors, such as residential, healthcare, student and social housing, and industrials. All of this has had obviously a huge impact on the growth of the Index Series.
As partners, we have a number of new products that we are developing to respond to the growing need from investors, on which we will update in due time.
All three CEOs stressed the importance of the relationship for the sector and the market, and look forward to another 15 years of collaboration.
