EDITOR'S LETTER: Opportunistic shackles well and truly shed

Whether P-E-R-E, P-E RE, Peray as I’ve heard on occasion, or the long-hand Private Equity Real Estate, the message was clear: everyone knows who you are talking about. We were pleased about that level of recognition.

However, we did have an issue with the last of those names as, while private equity real estate represents our publication’s genesis, its connotation with value-add and opportunistic investing, we felt, was limiting our purview. 

The institutional capital and capital management we serve was fast developing into a far broader universe, in terms of strategy, but also risk and return profile. And so a subtle change was made: the long-hand Private Equity Real Estate became the shorthand PERE and the introduction of the strapline: ‘For the world’s private real estate markets’ was introduced, signaling an expansion of our coverage to encompass all private real estate investment in the process. If ever there was a key juncture in the growth of this publication, that surely was it.

Given the news on PERENews.com in early 2017, we are feeling as vindicated as ever about that call. Coverage of the world’s core property markets better connects us to the financial markets mainstream at a time when the asset class has well and truly institutionalized and now serves as a legitimate proxy for fixed-income products. For further reassurance, we can see how the world’s top private equity real estate firms have also shed their opportunistic-only shackles and become an emerging force in core real estate investing. Last month, Starwood gatecrashed the party with the launch of its first core platform, becoming the eighth of our PERE50 top 10 managers to offer clients lower risk and return products. Investment bank Morgan Stanley, residential specialists Greystar and Asia opportunity fund manager SC Capital also heralded significant core news in the month, with each pulling plenty of website hits.

Perhaps we should have called ourselves PRE, or Private Real Estate? Regardless, judging by your reading habits – which we monitor religiously – you’ve approved of the call we made in 2011. You should, therefore, approve of much of this issue’s content too.