March 06, 2017 12:00 AM

Public plans push on with real estate; corporate plans are less enthused

The median public pension plan allocation to real estate was $1.3 billion as of Sept. 30, while corporate plans allocated a median $191 million, according to data collected by Pensions & Investments. Both figures are up from their 2015 medians, and significantly higher than where they were in 2011. The maximum public and corporate plan allocations were $27.7 billion and $3.3 billion, respectively.

Public plans have shown renewed appetite for the asset class in the years following the recession. Corporate plans have been less enthusiastic about real estate, particularly as many plans move to liability-driven investment platforms.

Over the one-year period ended Sept. 30, the NCREIF Property index was up 9.22%, and 11.17% over the trailing five-year period on an annualized basis.

2016 observations were taken from Pensions & Investments' 2016 Top 1000 retirement plan survey; 79 public plans and 54 corporate plans responded with their real estate allocations.