Working Paper #732
Twenty Years of Opportunistic Real Estate Investing
Joanne Douvas
Asia Europe Real Estate Investment Trusts United States
The history of real estate opportunity funds is a twenty-year search to take advantage of cycles of distress and the scarcity of capital. Opportunity funds identify dislocations and illiquidity in real estate markets that have historically shifted geographically over time based on where the market is in the real estate cycle. The availability of excess returns for those managers that know what they are doing and that possess the requisite skill set to execute opportunistically is expected to continue. The opportunity for funds to achieve higher returns has become truly global in nature and these geographical shifts can also be expected to continue.