Chart of the Week: Pension Funds by Region

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PERE Research & Analytics profiles over 2500 LPs that invest or have invested into private real estate. Within this total, 720 institutions profiled are listed as Pension Funds. Because these limited partners are very active in private real estate, PERE Research & Analytics decided to take a deeper look into profiled pension funds around the world. Of the 720 pension funds profiled, 58 percent are domiciled in North America while 27 percent are located in Europe. The largest pension funds for North America and Europe are the California Public Employees' Retirement System and the Government Pension Fund of Norway respectfully. Despite making up just 12 percent of the total pension funds, Asia-Pacific houses the largest pension fund in the world, which is the Government Pension Investment Fund in Japan. 

Since the California Public Employee’s Retirement System announced its increased allocation to real estate from 9 percent to 11 percent earlier in the year a number of pension funds have been re-evaluating their target allocations to the private real estate asset class. The New Mexico Educational Retirement Board had revised its target to real estate from 5 percent to 7 percent. The University of Texas Investment Management Co. made a minor boost to their real estate allocation, with an increase from 8.2 percent to 8.5 percent.  

Additionally, a number of investors had announced sizable investment plans to reach their new targets for the asset class. The Florida State Board of Administration had unveiled a $900 million real estate plan for its 2014-2015 fiscal year to reach its new 10 percent real estate allocation, which was approved last December. The Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois is aiming to deploy $850 million to real estate for 2015, in order to reach its new allocation of 15 percent approved in June. Internationally, The Public Service Pension Fund of Taiwan had issued a RFP for two global real estate managers to run $150 million each, making it the first allocation to the asset class for the pension fund.