You can find the report here.
John was a member of the project team and chaired the panel discussion at the
launch event.
John Forbes was the author of a major report by PwC for the Association of Real Estate Funds, “Unlisted funds - lessons from the crisis”, published in January 2012. This report identified some immediate areas for improvement
in behaviour and some longer term drivers for product development.
You can find the report and more details here.
A key area of concern was the process for extending the life or widning up closed-ended real estate funds. INREV, AREF and the Investment Property Forum (IPF) set up the End of Life Project which aimed to provide advice on best practice relating to the end of life period for closed-ended funds. After an extensive interview process and a consultation process, the final report was published in September 2016.
We were asked to undertake an independent review for AREF of their member fund behaviour, which was published in April 2017. You can find it here.
Tel: 0207 237 0374
Existing funds reach maturity / investors search for reassurance
At the time of our original report, we were expecting an increase in funds coming to a natural end, particularly in the second half of 2012. At the same time a number of closed funds were reaching the end of their commitment periods. All of this meant that some fund managers were facing pressure to raise new funds to ensure that they had a continuing revenue stream. Many open-ended funds had also faced a period of significant challenge during the financial crisis. In our original report, we anticipated that as they sought to raise new funds, managers would face some challenges in dealing with an investor base that had become significantly more demanding as a reaction to events over the preceding three years.
The immediate crisis for closed-ended funds was mitigated by investors in many funds agreeing to extensions that resulted in a spreading of the winding up. Major investor concerns remained however.
A spotlight was further shone on open-ended funds in the aftermath of the EU referendum in 2016.
