Investor guide
A global perspective on pension fund investments in real estate
Pension funds — from CalPERS to CPP Investments to Norway's GPFG — have allocated to real estate globally for decades. Their playbook is instructive even at individual scale.
What pension funds actually buy
Pension funds invest in real estate three ways: directly (owning buildings), through real estate funds (commingled vehicles), and via listed REITs. The largest allocations are to multifamily, logistics, and selected office in gateway cities. Allocations typically sit around 8–12% of total assets.
What they look for
- Stable, inflation-linked cash flow. Rents that adjust with inflation are the core of the asset class.
- Long duration. Pension liabilities are decades long; matching them with long-life real assets is the whole point.
- Geographic diversification. No fund of meaningful size invests in a single country.
How this maps to individual cross-border investors
You don't have a pension fund's scale, but you can borrow the principles: prioritize cash-flowing assets, accept long holding periods, diversify currencies. ProjectIQ's marketplace is built around that thesis — long-duration residential assets, listed across multiple countries and currencies, with the operator info you need to underwrite.