Bouwfonds REIM is developing a strategic vision, based on internal research, for the investment markets in which we operate. This vision, in combination with the knowledge of our people on the ground in local real estate markets, will be converted into concrete investment opportunities for our clients by means of a fund concept. Real estate expertise and knowledge of financial markets will thus be combined, enabling us to set up investment products that match the risk/return profiles desired by our clients.
Research analyses investment opportunities ‘top-down’, using demographic, economic, technological and socio-political trends. By specifically taking long-term, demographic trends (such as ageing and urbanisation) as the starting point for our products, Bouwfonds REIM focuses chiefly on real estate with a relatively low risk profile compared to the rest of the real estate sector. Within this focus, we go a step further by explicitly concentrating on those developments in the other trends that will have the greatest effect on the expected future investment result. The most important aspects that warrant a mention in this context are, on the one hand, the expected increase in the effect of sustainability on real estate, and on the other, the ‘financial deleveraging’ of society, in which future possibilities for financing real estate will be at a structurally lower level than was previously the case. Real estate and financial markets are therefore visibly converging.
Bouwfonds REIM is convinced that the way demographic, economic, technological and socio-political trends are currently developing presents a good opportunity to start or continue investing in real estate. As such, the focus will be on investments in residential real estate, primary retail facilities, agricultural land and real estate in the infrastructural sector (such as parking facilities and certain healthcare and education sectors). As well as that, there are more opportunistic product openings available at present too, which, given the risk profile, could produce an attractive absolute return by making use of the upwards trend in the real estate cycle or of the specific opportunities the market currently offers (such as investments in primary real estate loans and/or cable networks).