Gerwin Holland, senior portfolio manager at Dutch pension fund PGGM, joined REIT.com for a video interview at REITWorld 2013: NAREIT’s Annual Convention for All Things REIT at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis.
Holland was asked where PGGM is seeing funds flowing to at this point, and what is behind that trend.
“I think there is still a lot of room to invest in real estate itself, especially in listed real estate securities. It makes sense on an allocation perspective,” Holland replied. He explained that investors are preparing themselves for a more normalized environment. “So right now everyone is moving their liquidity to that point, and going forward I think there’s still good sense in investing in listed real estate securities,” Holland said.
Asked about the challenges for investors who want to diversify their portfolios by investing abroad, Holland stressed the importance of understanding real estate fundamentals plus the macroeconomic environment.
“In each part of the world there are different metrics, different cultures, different evaluation methods and also different type of product to invest in… and if you combine it all together capital is always flowing from West to East, and if you follow that capital you will also see there are a lot of opportunities elsewhere,” Holland said.