ANREV to adopt European guidelines

Asia’s association for unlisted real estate vehicles will adopt the “ready-made” framework used by INREV, which will help the sector be more transparent and become better governed, according to Nick Loup, chairman of ANREV and chief executive officer of Grosvenor.

ANREV, the Asian Association for Investors in Non-listed Real Estate Vehicles, is to endorse the guidelines of its European equivalent INREV, in addition to sharing research and data, the two organisations said in an announcement today.

The partnership is aimed at improving the transparency and efficiency of Asia’s non-listed funds market. It will enable ANREV to adopt INREV’s longer standing set of principle guidelines, governance recommendations and information provisions.

Nick Loup, chairman of ANREV and chief executive officer of Grosvenor Asia Pacific, a regional arm of London-based Grosvenor, said the Hong Kong-based organisation would adopt INREV’s “ready-made” framework. He said: “The INREV guidelines offer us a ready-made and tested framework to support the rapid development of a common foundation for governance and transparency for non-listed property funds in the region.”

ANREV will integrate the guidelines through a series of member workshops and online tools, including an online self-assessment tool designed to enable companies to adopt best reporting practices.

ANREV will also develop an Asian vehicles database based on the, INREV Vehicles Database, the model and data system used currently by INREV in Europe. That database has information on 476 real estate funds with a gross combined value of €271 billion.

This latest initiative between ANREV and INREV is the most significant of a number of recent collaborations between the two organisations. Over the last 12 months, they have jointly released two investor intentions reports.

ANREV has recently changed its name from the Asian Real Estate Association.

Also this week, INREV revealed the results of a survey into fund of funds investment which showed that investment from fund of funds managers was down by 96 percent in Europe in the first nine months of 2009 from the same period in 2007. In all, fund of funds managers committed just €75 million in the nine months.