Speakers: Charles Haase, Chief Executive, ANREV. Dan Dierking, President, NCREIF
How does the Global Real Estate Fund Index (GREFI) benefit investors operating on a global scale?
Lonneke Löwik: GREFI is the result of a combined effort involving three regional associations, INREV, ANREV and NCREIF working together under the Global Alliance. Our shared aim is to empower our members across the globe with the insights needed to make better informed decisions as an industry. It is vital that we work towards being able to make robust global and interregional comparisons across the real estate risk spectrum. GREFI is a unique index, the first of its kind globally. What sets it apart? It measures the combined performance of both open and closed end real estate vehicles from around the world. Global investors can use the index as a compass for investments across the full spectrum of real estate investing, including core, value added and opportunistic real estate vehicles.
What is the key use of the GREFI?
Dan Dierking: GREFI measures net asset value performance, net of fees and other costs of non-listed real estate funds on a quarterly basis. It does this by providing time-weighted returns which is commonly used for open ended vehicles but also allows to make comparisons at an aggregated level for closed ended vehicles. Although for individual closed end funds, other performance metrics might be more appropriate. Insights are available on both the sector and geographical allocation, beyond the performance data. Members of the three organizations gain access to the global data and other regional indices that they would otherwise not have access to.
How will the GREFI contribute to the overall transparency and standardisation of the non-listed real estate market?
Charles Haase: Global Real Estate Fund Index or GREFI, caters to the needs of our maturing industry, which has evolved to be much more global in terms of capital movements and investment strategies. GREFI drives us toward the common goal of further improved comparability and transparency focusing on clearly defined and understood performance requirements. The index as well as the underlying market information can be used by all members from our three organizations for comparison analysis, but also for research and strategy purposes. The next step is to achieve the ultimate goal of building asset level performance and attribution analysis.
