Risks And Possibilities For Finnish Institutional Investors In Non-Listed Property Funds

This paper defines the different risks related to non-listed property funds from the point of view of the Finnish institutional investor. The institutional investors (i.e. private pension insurance companies, pension foundations and funds, public sector pension institutions, life insurance companies) will invest more to real estate as an asset class because of the increasing pension funds and target allocations according to authorís previous research. The instrument will be more often indirect instrument. Estimates shows that pension funds will increase until 2020 and target allocation will be kept on the same level. It means that real estate investments must be doubled. Finnish institutional investors will meet challenges in diversifying their real estate portfolios to direct and indirect real estate investment instruments. Traditional real estate risk is changing to more and more complex risks i.e. management, finance and real estate portfolio risks in non-listed property funds. International diversifying through different instruments demand different skills and knowledge, but also new investment process. International instruments offer many possibilities and competitive returns compared to home market. Research methods have been and will be interviews and literature review. Interviews are semi-structured and they are tape recorded. This study will clarify the challenge of investing to non-listed property funds (also real estate equity funds) and the investment potential of pension funds and other institutional investors in Finland. Paper will describe the changes of the Finnish institutional investorís investment strategies and more global real estate investment market.