Their combined real estate assets have a value higher than the GDP of all but the top 10 countries in the world, and the top three control £280bn between them. Here Samantha McClary reveals the 100 heavyweights in the world of global property investment
The world’s top 100 property investors own real estate valued at more than $3.2tn (£2.1tn), according to Estates Gazette’s second annual global rankings.
Focusing on real assets, rather than debt or securities, the list pulls together investors from all over the globe.
Brookfield Asset Management, CBRE Global Investors and Blackstone continue to dominate the top three positions, with more than $280bn of property between them. This year, UK retail REIT Hammerson nudges its way on to the bottom of the list with $11.3bn of assets.
| COMPANY | Country | Key real estate Contact | TOTAL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brookfield Asset Management | US | Barry Blattman | 112 |
| 2 | CBRE Global Investors | US | Matt Khourie | 90.6 |
| 3 | Blackstone | US | Jonathan Gray | 80 |
| 4 | China Vanke | China | Wang Shi | 79.2 |
| 5 | TIAA-CREF (inc Henderson Asia & Europe) | US | Phillip McAndrews | 77 |
| 6 | Sun Hung Kai Properties | Hong Kong | Thomas & Raymond Kwok | 69.5 |
| 7 | Tishman Speyer | US | Jerry & Rob Speyer | 66.9 |
| 8 | JP Morgan Asset Management | US | Joseph Azelby | 65 |
| 9 | Wheelock & Co | Hong Kong | Peter Woo | 62.8 |
| 10 | AXA Real Estate | France | Pierre Vaquire | 62.7 |
| 11 | Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties | China | Wang Jianlin | 62.1 |
| 12 | Pramerica Real Estate Investors | US | Eric Adler | 59.3 |
| 13 | Abu Dhabi Investment Authority | United Arab Emirates | William Schwab | 57.8 |
| 14 | Cheung Kong Holdings | Hong Kong | LI Ka-Shing | 55.3 |
| 15 | China Resources Land | Hong Kong | Wu Xiangdong | 55.3 |
| 16 | LaSalle Investment Management | US | Jeff Jacobson | 53.6 |
| 17 | Poly Real Estate | China | Wang Jian | 51.5 |
| 18 | Principal Real Estate Investors | US | Randy Mundt | 50.5 |
| 19 | AEW Global | US | Jeff Furber | 50.5 |
| 20 | Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management | Germany | Pierre Cherki | 46.8 |
| 21 | Mitsubishi Estates | Japan | Hirotake Sugiyama | 45.1 |
| 22 | Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers | US | David Reilly | 45 |
| 23 | Evergrande Real Estate | China | Xia Haijun | 44.7 |
| 24 | Unibail-Rodamco | France | Christophe Cuvillier | 44.6 |
| 25 | Mitsui Fudosan | Japan | Hidehisa Take | 43 |
| 26 | New World Development | Hong Kong | Henry Cheng Kar-Shun | 42.8 |
| 27 | Aviva Investors | UK | Ian Womack | 39.3 |
| 28 | Sumitomo Realty | Japan | Kojun Nishima | 39.2 |
| 29 | Henderson Land | Hong Kong | La Ka Kit | 39.2 |
| 30 | Starwood Capital | US | Barry Sternlicht | 38 |
| 31 | Qatar Investment Authority | Qatar | Navid Chamdia | 37.4 |
| 32 | Invesco Real Estate | US | David Ridley | 34.9 |
| 33 | Country Garden Holdings | China | Yang Huiyan | 34.1 |
| 34 | Simon Property Group | US | David Simon | 33.3 |
| 35 | Morgan Stanley Real Estate | US | John Klopp | 33 |
| 36 | China Investment Corporation | China | Zhiwei Cai | 32.5 |
| 37 | GIC | Singapore | Goh Kok Huat | 32 |
| 38 | Clarion Partners | US | Stephen Furnary | 31.9 |
| 39 | Westfield Group | Australia | Frank Lowry | 31.2 |
| 40 | Temasek Holdings | Singapore | Alpin Mehta | 31.2 |
| 41 | M&G Real Estate | UK | Alex Jeffery | 30.8 |
| 42 | Aberdeen Asset Management (inc SWIP) | UK | Martin Gilbert | 30 |
| 43 | Shimao Property Holdings | China | Hui Wing Mau | 29 |
| 44 | Capita Land | Singapore | Lim Ming Yan | 28.6 |
| 45 | Hines | US | Hasty Johnson | 28.2 |
| 46 | Heitman | US | Maury Tognarelli | 27.5 |
| 47 | Equity Residential | US | Davide Neithercut | 26.8 |
| 48 | Grosvenor Group | UK | Mark Preston | 26.5 |
| 49 | General Growth Properties | US | Sandeep Mathrani | 25.8 |
| 50 | Hang Lung Group | Hong Kong | Phillip Nan Lok Chen | 25.7 |
| 51 | Bentall Kennedy | Canada | Gary Whitelaw | 25.3 |
| 52 | Angelo, Gordon & Co | US | John Angelo | 25 |
| 53 | Prologis | US | Hamid Moghadam | 24.6 |
| 54 | Longfor Properties | China | Wu Yajun | 23.8 |
| 55 | Fonciere des Regions | France | Jean Laurent | 23.7 |
| 56 | Guangzhou R&F | China | Zhang Li | 23.2 |
| 57 | Health Care REIT | US | George Chapman | 23.1 |
| 58 | Sino-Ocean Land Holdings | China | Luo Dongjiang | 22.8 |
| 59 | China Merchants Property | China | Lin Shaobin | 22.1 |
| 60 | Legal & General Property | UK | Bill Hughes | 21.8 |
| 61 | HCP | US | Lauralee Martin | 21.7 |
| 62 | IVG Immobilien | Germany | Wolfgang Schafers | 21 |
| 63 | BNP Paribas Real Estate Investment Management | France | Henri Faure | 20.3 |
| 64 | Boston Properties | US | Mort Zuckerman | 20.2 |
| 65 | Greentown China Holdings | China | Shou Bainian | 20.2 |
| 66 | American Tower | US | James Taiclet | 20.1 |
| 67 | Vornado Realty | US | Michael Franco | 20.1 |
| 68 | BlackRock (inc MGPA) | US | Laurence Fink | 19.9 |
| 69 | Ventas | US | Debra Cafaro | 19.7 |
| 70 | Land Securities | UK | Rob Noel | 19.5 |
| 71 | Gemdale | China | Huang Juncan | 19.2 |
| 72 | Colony Capital | US | Thomas Barrack | 19 |
| 73 | Emaar Properties | UAE | Fred Durie | 17.7 |
| 74 | Sino Land | Hong Kong | Daryl Ng | 17.4 |
| 75 | Hopson Development Holdings | Hong Kong | Kut Yung Chu | 17.4 |
| 76 | Schroder Property Investment Management | UK | Duncan Owen | 17.3 |
| 77 | Beacon Capital Partners | US | Alan Leventhal | 17 |
| 78 | Agile Property Holdings | China | Chen Cheuk Yin | 16.7 |
| 79 | Standard Life Investments | UK | David Paine | 16.5 |
| 80 | Shui On Land | China | Vincent Lo | 16.3 |
| 81 | Avalonbay Communities | US | Timothy Naughton | 15.3 |
| 82 | Gecina | France | Phillipe Depoux | 15.2 |
| 83 | SL Green Realty | US | Marc Holliday | 15 |
| 84 | Lundbergs | Sweden | Fredrik Lundberg | 15 |
| 85 | Icade | France | Serge Grzybowski | 14.2 |
| 86 | Lend Lease | Australia | Steve McCann | 13.8 |
| 87 | Intu Properties | UK | David Fischel | 13.6 |
| 88 | Global Logistic Properties | Singapore | Jeffery Schwartz | 13.5 |
| 89 | Link REIT | Hong Kong | George Kwok Lung | 13.4 |
| 90 | City Developments | Singapore | Grant Kelley | 13.2 |
| 91 | Stockland Australia | Australia | Mark Steinert | 13.1 |
| 92 | Soho China | China | Zhang Xing | 12.9 |
| 93 | Yuexiu Property Company | Hong Kong | Zhang Zhaoxing | 12.9 |
| 94 | Host Hotels & Resorts | US | Edward Walter | 12.8 |
| 95 | British Land | UK | Chris Grigg | 12.6 |
| 96 | Songbird Estates | UK | George Iacobescu | 12.2 |
| 97 | Aldar Properties | UAE | Mohammed Khalifa Al Mubarak | 11.9 |
| 98 | Paramount Group | US | Albert Behler | 11.5 |
| 99 | Ezdan Holding Group | Qatar | Ali al Obaidli | 11.3 |
| 100 | Hammerson | UK | David Atkins | 11.3 |
$999bn
Asian investors make up almost a third of this year’s rankings by volume of holdings, with $999bn (£653bn) of property.
$39.3bn
Aviva Investors tops the list of UK firms, with $39.3bn of property. In total, the UK held just over $250bn of the $3.2tn of assets in the top 100.
$23.7bn
There were 10 new entrants this year, from the UK, China, Hong Kong and France. Fronciere des Regions, with some $23.7bn of property in its portfolio, was the highest ranking new entrant, joining the list at number 55.
$1.5bn
The biggest fallers were Tishman Speyer and AXA Real Estate. Despite adding $2.1bn to its portfolio, the hungrier appetites of the Chinese pushed Tishman from 4th in 2013 to 7th this year. AXA fell from 5th place to 10th as assets declined by $1.5bn.
China rising
China’s dominance in real estate in 2014 failed to go unnoticed in EG’s global investor rankings, with Chinese and Hong Kong property companies showing some of the largest moves up.
China Vanke became the first Chinese company to enter the top five, with an increase in assets from $60.3bn to $79.2bn (see interview overleaf).
Hong Kong-based Sun Hung Kai Properties, Wheelock & Co and China Resources Land and China-based Dalian Wanda and Poly Real Estate all also showed big jumps up the rankings as they added an average of $19bn of property to their portfolios.
Sovereign wealth
Sovereign wealth funds make up just 1% of the real estate investor universe, yet the influence they exert on the asset class exceeds that of many other investors, writes Andrew Moylan, head of real assets products at Preqin.
More than half of all SWFs tracked by Preqin allocate capital to real estate. And of the 37 SWFs with more than $10bn in AUM, 28 invest in property, with 61% allocating at least 5% of their total assets to the class. Just over one-quarter allocate more than 10%.
These proportions are expected to grow in the coming years due to the discrepancy that exists between current and target allocations. The average current real estate allocation for SWFs is 6.6%, compared with an average target allocation of 9.1%.
Korea Investment Corporation, a SWF with $75bn in AUM, has a current allocation of 2% to real estate, placing it $3.7bn under its 7% target. New Mexico State Investment Council is behind its 5% target for real estate by almost $800m and expects to close this gap by investing $300m-$400m in private real estate over the next 12 months.
While 87% of SWFs make direct investments, many will also make commitments with private fund managers. Just 28% will solely invest directly, while 72% will make a combination of direct and indirect investments.
Top 15 sovereign wealth funds
| Sovereign wealth fund | Country | Key real estate contact | Allocation to real estate ($bn) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abu Dhabi Investment Authority | United Arab Emirates | William Schwab | 57.8 |
| Qatar Investment Authority | Qatar | Navid Chamdia | 37.4 |
| China Investment Corporation | China | Zhiwei Cai | 32.5 |
| GIC | Singapore | Goh Kok Huat | 32 |
| Temasek Holdings | Singapore | Alpin Mehta | 31.2 |
| Kuwait Investment Authority | Kuwait | Ahmad Al-Bader | 9.9 |
| Government Pension Fund – Global | Norway | Karsten Kallevig | 7.1 |
| Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation | US | Rosemarie Duran | 6 |
| Future Fund | Australia | Barry Brakey | 4.5 |
| Khazanah Nasional | Malaysia | Kenneth Shen | 4.1 |
| Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund | Canada | Rod Babineau | 2.6 |
| International Petroleum Investment Company | United Arab Emirates | Khalifa Al-Romaithi | 2 |
| Korea Investment Corporation | South Korea | Jong-Ho Kim | 1.5 |
| Texas Permanent School Fund General Land Office | US | Bill Wood | 1.5 |
| New Zealand Superannuation Fund | New Zealand | Fiona Mackenzie | 1.2 |
| Ezdan Holding Group | Qatar | Ali al Obaidli | 11.3 |
| Hammerson | UK | David Atkins | 11.3 |
