The Drivers of UK Real Estate Funds report

‘The Drivers of UK Real Estate Funds’ examines the performance of UK unlisted property funds and the factors influencing returns between 2011 and 2025. Commissioned through the IPF Research Programme and undertaken by a research team at Bayes Business School, the study analyses three principal fund types: Balanced, Long Income and Other (Specialist). It builds on previous IPF research covering fund performance from 2001 to 2010 and draws on data from the MSCI/AREF Quarterly Property Fund Index and Property Fund Vision Handbook.

The report considers how the industry has evolved through changing economic and market conditions, including the period of low interest rates, Brexit-related uncertainty, the pandemic, and the subsequent rise in inflation and borrowing costs. It examines the size and structure of the fund market, investment flows, leverage, liquidity and return performance, before exploring the influence of fund characteristics, sector allocations and wider economic factors. It also considers the role of fund management and the factors that cannot be fully captured through quantitative analysis alone.