Publications

- September 2012: Vol. 24 No. 8

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Best Asset in a Supporting Role: The Part Played by Real Estate

by Michael Lester

Real estate functions as an income-generator, diversifier and hedge against inflation — lots of roles for one supporting actor. Those roles have not changed much because of the global financial crisis of 2008. But the crisis scared investors, causing many funds to turn to the perceived safety of core assets. The bandwagon is crowded, and long queues are waiting for core property funds.

Accolades for performances by actors in supporting roles have been given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1936. Walter Brennan won the best supporting actor award that year, and again in 1938, and again in 1940. He was the first actor to win three Oscars, and he remains the only person to have won three best supporting actor awards.

Real estate is the Walter Brennan of the institutional investment community. Equities play the star, the one who gets paid the most, the one that audiences come to see. But it’s real estate, the supporting actor, that so o

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