In our paper we look at the risk/return characteristics of global real estate private equity investments and compare them to those of direct real estate and general private equity investments (i.e. Venture Capital and Buy-out funds).

We investigate if the REPE investments behave more like PE investments than direct real estate investments. The results obtained in this study allow us to address a long-lasting debate regarding the way in which these investments should be called, i.e. REPE or PERE (depending on the individual preference of which aspect should be more pronounced). We will further whether capital allocations towards opportunistic REPE investments are in the wrong 'bucket' when included in the real estate share of the portfolio allocation.