The IREI editorial and board meeting staff have just finished a grand tour of the globe, consulting our Editorial Advisory Boards in the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe, as we always do at this time of year. In the process, we heard from 75 investors collectively controlling US$3.5 trillion in total AUM, US$326 billion — so an average of 9.3 percent — of which represented their collective investments in real property holdings around the globe.

In the process of preparing for these meetings, we typically ask investors to submit a list of questions they would like to discuss. And to help stimulate their thinking and focus their thoughts, we ask them to limit their answers to the burning issues that are most keeping them up at night.

An analysis of the questions they submitted can give you a great deal of insight into what’s on investors’ minds these days.

A myriad of burning issues

Not surprisingly, for example, investors around t