A principal issue that exercised investors during the global financial crisis was that they were not receiving enough information from fund managers. Not only were they not receiving sufficient information, sometimes they were also not receiving the bad news that went hand-in-hand with that information. It was a crisis not just of finance but also of relationship management and credibility.

INREV, the European Association for Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate Vehicles, has taken on a broader, deeper approach in the period since 2008 and now monitors joint ventures, club deals and segregated accounts as well as closed-end and, increasingly, open-end funds. Matthias Thomas, INREV CEO, concedes that INREV also needs to bring in the new profusion of debt funds. In his opening address to the INREV Conference in Berlin in early April, Thomas said that the real estate industry “has come back to life.â