Abu Dhabi wealth fund ranked as world’s top real estate investor

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) is the top real estate investor in the world, a research report said, a sign of gulf sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) growing their alternate investments portfolio.

SWFs in the Gulf have helped diversify their economies away from oil and invest in a wide range of non-oil related assets.

ADIA, one of the richest sovereign wealth funds in the world, manages $62.1bn in real estate assets, Credit Agricole’s IndoSuez Wealth Management said in a research note.

That accounts for 7.5 per cent of its total assets under management.

Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), with $35bn investments in real estate is ranked fifth after Netherlands, Germany and France.

“Not only have large institutional real estate investors become more ‘global’ in origin, they are investing more globally,” it said, citing data from IPE Real Assets.

“Institutional investors have been increasing their portfolio allocation to alternative investments including real estate,” it said, adding that real estate assets have helped provide a steady and diversified income stream to institutional portfolios as well as providing yield in the context of a low interest rate environment.

Some of ADIA’s current real estate projects include the $2bn-plus high-end residential Waterline Square development on New York’s Hudson River, the 200m euro deal with developer Bouygues Batiment lle-de-France for constructing a 38-storey office tower in Paris and the Mall of Switzerland opened last November.

QIA’s real estate investments include a stake in Empire State Realty Trust, the owners of the Empire State Building, to skyscrapers in London such as The Shard, and Canary Wharf.

The IPE Real Estate list of top 100 real estate investors also underscored the arrival of new players mainly from the Middle East, Singapore, South Korea and China among the top 20.

ADIA manages the reserves of the emirate of Abu Dhabi, part of the UAE and which produces about 3 per cent of the world’s oil output.

The fund manages $828bn in assets, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, making it the world’s third- largest sovereign wealth fund.