EPRA and Nareit joined forces on a number of investor outreach initiatives throughout 2021. While usually in-person on both sides of the pond and in the Middle East, these exchanges were organised virtually last year.
In January, Nareit organised several joint outreach meetings with large specialised listed real estate investment managers located in Boston, Chicago and New York. It is important we have an opportunity to inform these investment teams about what we are seeing in Europe through the index and the market, as well as raise their awareness of our activities. Some of the investment teams we have spoken to look at listed real estate globally. The outreach offers them a valuable resource to discuss the global market and for us to offer further European sector insights.
In December, it was EPRA’s chance to organise a series of virtual meetings covering large pension schemes, investment consultants, specialist listed real estate managers and insurance companies in Europe. These collaborative initiatives present an important opportunity for EPRA and Nareit to leverage both organisations' research and industry perspectives to deliver a unified and coherent global perspective on listed real estate. We were pleased to hear some of Europe’s largest pension funds increasing their listed real estate exposure, as well as taking on an advocacy role by speaking to their peers about the benefits of the asset class. We are able to supply insights, research and data on occasions like this and directly enhance the message they deliver. Such discussions also highlight the strength of these collaborative efforts as a means to grow the sector, one of the core pillars of our associations.
The eighth edition of the joint outreach initiative in Europe saw the investor outreach teams present one unified global presentation pack through shared data and research. It was clear the investors continue to be interested in understanding the price discrepancy between listed real estate share prices and underlying real estate valuations represented by unlisted portfolios. The hot topics from many of the conversations were inflation, ESG contribution and the impact of the pandemic on different real estate sectors. There was also notable interest in listed real estate returns relative to other asset classes, as shown through the updated CEM Benchmarking research.
Investors looking to adjust their portfolios by sector and geography and navigate increasing inflationary pressures, will be pleased to know that 2022 will present many opportunities to hear from both investor outreach teams. In March, Nareit travelled to London for the first round of in-person investor meetings in recent years. EPRA is looking to head to the US later this year for a series of investor meetings before welcoming Nareit, which we hope will be travelling to Europe in Q4. Given the strong appetite and growing interest for global listed real estate, we look forward to continuing our joint outreach efforts.
