European real estate could attract €75bn (£63bn) in capital from becoming a standalone equity sector, panellists said at the 2016 EPRA Conference in Paris.
Alex Moss, chairman of the EPRA research committee, said the increase would come from steady rises of investment as visibility of the sector increases.
He said: “We are witnessing the increasing maturity of real estate as an asset class, with the listed property sector becoming a credible and sizable complement to fixed-income and general equity investments.”
He added that there was a danger that rising values would seem too elevated for generalist investors and they might take an “underweight” position on the sector.
Listed real estate became the first addition to the Global Industry Classification Standard since the industry classification system was founded in 1999.
It was previously categorised with the financials sector.
Sebastian Lieblich, managing director of research at MSCI, said that the change, which came into effect on 1 September, came from real estate becoming more specialised since the introduction of GICS.
Throughout the 2000s REITs were broken down into further sub-sectors.
Real estate’s share of the global equities market has also more than tripled since 2009, from 1.1% to 3.5%.
Research from EPRA showed that the growth came largely from the expansion of REITs in the 12 European countries that have the programme.
Sweden and Poland are also in the process of starting REITs.
Philip Charles, chief executive of EPRA, said: “Global listed real estate has come of age.
“A standalone real estate sector is recognition that listed property companies are an important investment sector in their own right.”
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