The membership of the European Association for Investors in Non-listed Real Estate Vehicles (INREV) has reached 250 only four years after the organisation's formation, as investors and fund managers have shown strong interest in participating in its aims of establishing transparency and professional standards for the industry.
"I think the rapid increase in our membership shows INREV's aims of bringing transparency to the institutional non-listed real estate funds industry, and establishing it as a coherent and structured major investment asset class in its own right, are of vital importance to investors and fund managers," INREV Chief Executive Lisette van Doorn said.
"I'm particularly happy to welcome a German investor; Gothaer Asset Management AG, as our 250th member. We want to increase our membership in this very important real estate investment market and improve the quality of the information we are receiving from funds investing in Germany, to improve the INREV database as representative of the European industry as a whole," she added.
Gothaer is a leading German insurance company investing in non-listed real estate funds and is one of 34 new members joining INREV in the past six months, representing a 17% jump in membership since the start of the year.
The latest INREV Quarterly Research Report showed the association's Vehicles Database consisted of 478 funds representing a gross asset value (GAV) of €325.9 billion, or roughly 80% of the estimated €400 billion total value of the industry in Europe.
An analysis of the database shows that the number of European non-listed real estate funds targeting institutional investors has increased almost six-fold in the last ten years, and three times measured by value over the same period. The most significant rise in the number of vehicles has been for those with core and value added investment styles.
The average number of non-listed funds launched in the European market over the last three years has been relatively high at over 50 per year. INREV has identified 13 new funds coming to the market during the first quarter of 2007, with a target gross asset value of approximately €7.4 billion.
Source: Bellier Financial
