The AFIRE Podcast

AFIRE CEO and podcast host Gunnar Branson recently sat down with Jacques Gordon of LaSalle Investment Management at a partner event for Informa’s Global Property Market Forum for a candid conversation about the future of global real estate investment.

https://www.afire.org/podcast/202221cast/

As Global Strategist for LaSalle, Gordon has a long tenure of leadership and strategy for global institutional investment. This discussion, hosted by LaSalle and designed for institutional investors, will likely be one of Gordon’s last public conversations before he retires from LaSalle in January 2023 to become the first “Executive-in-Residence” at MIT beginning in Spring 2023.

The wide-ranging conversation, a special year-end episode of the AFIRE Podcast cast, covers the current state of the real estate market and future strategies as the global real estate investment industry rewrites some of its best practices for the years ahead.

“Real estate isn’t something you do quarter-by-quarter,” Gordon says. “It generally is a five- to ten-year bet.” In this context, smart money wins, especially as many countries move to a highly-leveraged approach to cash flows.

Neil Shearing, Group Chief Economist for Capital Economics, joins the AFIRE Podcast with Gunnar Branson to talk about how global economics are “resetting” CRE markets.

https://www.afire.org/podcast/202220cast/

The most recent quarter of 2022 has been a constant process of downgraded expectations for commercial real estate investors and managers. War in Europe, persistent inflation, and supply chain challenges are only part of a perfect storm that is totally disrupting the global balance of the past 3 decades. If the volatility of the present continues, what global forces will investment leaders need to track for the months ahead?

Neil Shearing, Group Chief Economist for Capital Economics, an independent economic research business based in London, sat down in November 2022 with AFIRE CEO and podcast host Gunnar Branson to discuss his latest insights on how global economics are forcing a reset of CRE markets.

(Featuring Michael Cooper, President, Dream Unlimited)

https://www.afire.org/podcast/202219cast/

The practice and expectations of investing across all industries is undergoing major upheaval and the key to stability will mean looking beyond profit for profit’s sake.

While most think of disruption as an effect of technological change, this one is a product of environmental and social concerns. In the face of imminent threats from climate change, income inequality, and increasingly unaffordable housing, real estate investors and developers are being forced to think beyond mere profit to the roles their organizations can play in addressing these challenges.

In this episode, Michael Cooper, President and Chief Responsible Officer of Dream Unlimited, joins AFIRE CEO Gunnar Branson on the AFIRE Podcast to discuss impact investing and how it can provide a disruption-proof strategy. Findings are based on the recent article Mr. Cooper wrote for AFIRE Summit Journal.

(Featuring Brian Klinksiek, Global Head of Research and Strategy for LaSalle Investment Management)

https://www.afire.org/podcast/202218cast/

Across the entire institutional investment industry right now, the notion of fear—stated or implied—is at the center of how we discuss the future. The question for investors is: is this fear grounded in reality, or response?

In this two-part episode, Brian Klinksiek, incoming Global Head of Research and Strategy for LaSalle Investment Management, joins AFIRE CEO Gunnar Branson on the AFIRE Podcast to find some answers.

(Featuring Brian Klinksiek, Global Head of Research and Strategy for LaSalle Investment Management)

www.afire.org/podcast/202218cast/

Across the entire institutional investment industry right now, the notion of fear—stated or implied—is at the center of how we discuss the future. The question for investors is: is this fear grounded in reality, or response?

In this two-part episode, Brian Klinksiek, incoming Global Head of Research and Strategy for LaSalle Investment Management, joins AFIRE CEO Gunnar Branson on the AFIRE Podcast to find some answers.

Jamie Kingsley (NCREIF and PREA) and Constantin Sorlescu (INREV) join the AFIRE Podcast to discuss how global data standards can improve real estate investing in the future—and how doing the hard-but-necessary work of standardization can improve operations and strategy right now.

https://www.afire.org/podcast/202217/

For several years, institutional real estate investors have worked together to create better standards for the industry. How we define things like NOI, ROI, and cap rates matter no matter where in the world an investment is made, and yet different companies and even different people within those companies can often define those terms differently.

Getting an industry of entrepreneurs and institutions around the world to agree is not easy and progress can seem glacially slow. But there is value in the journey.

Jamie Kingsley, Data Governance and Reporting Standards Director for NCREIF and PREA, and Constantin Sorlescu, Director of Professional Standards for INREV, sat down with AFIRE CEO and podcast host Gunnar Branson in September 2022 to discuss how global data standards could transform real estate for good, and for better.

AFIRE recently made our annual return to Munich, Germany, for EXPO REAL, the largest trade fair for real estate and investment in Europe since its formation in 1998.

https://www.afire.org/podcast/exporeal2022/

As the world continues to recover from COVID and adjust for broad global uncertainty, we sat down with several members to get an outlook on global investment as it stands right now.

FEATURING:

Audrey Klein, Chair of the ESG Committee, Planet Smart City

Audrey Klein has held Head of Fundraising roles at several firms but is best known for starting the European business out of London for the Park Hill Real Estate Group, a Division of Blackstone. Prior to joining Park Hill, she ran her own business marketing alternative asset funds across all asset classes to European investors comprised of pension funds, banks, family offices. She serves as the ESG Chair for SFO Capital and Planet Smart City.

Will McIntosh, Global Head of Research, USAA Real Estate

Will McIntosh serves as Global Head of Research for USAA Real Estate. Will is responsible for developing the commercial real estate investment strategy and manages the firm’s global research platform that informs and enhances the real estate investment process. He is a member of the firm’s Investment Committee.

Joao Nuno Madeira de Andrade, Board Member, Fidelidade Property

Joao Andrade serves as board member for Fidelidade Property, which is part of Fidelidade, a Portuguese insurance company that was established in the early nineteenth century, headquartered in Lisbon. Fidelidade is a subsidiary of Fosun International and is a leader in the domestic Portuguese market, providing life and non-life products for both individuals and companies.

Tedd Willcocks, President and CEO, Triovest

Ted Willcocks is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Triovest. Ted brings more than 25 years of diverse international experience in commercial real estate, having held a series of increasingly senior positions with CBRE, Brookfield Properties, and most recently, Manulife. For the last several years, he led the development and implementation of the real estate strategy for Manulife Investment Management, overseeing portfolio management, asset management and development in Canada, the United States, Australia and Asia, accelerating the growth of its Private Markets business.

(Featuring Robert Seldin of Madison Highland Live/Work Lofts)

https://www.afire.org/podcast/202215seldin/

Mobile information technology has upended US land use regulation, and the ramifications of this technological upheaval are finally coming into view.

Everyone in real estate complains about zoning laws. Depending on the municipality, it can determine the success or failure of any project, and quite often, the zoning seems to be completely opposed to the way people want to work, live, and play. How can real estate and zoning be flexible enough to meet the needs of a post-COVID population in cities that were changing long before the pandemic?

Rob Seldin, Managing Principal at Madison Highland Live Work Lofts, sat down with AFIRE CEO and podcast host Gunnar Branson on September 7, 2022 to discuss how a flexible approach to office and residential may be a direction for adaptive re-use to solve for an uncertain and fast changing future.

Based on the recent article Mr. Seldin wrote for AFIRE Summit Journal, he is unlocking new drivers for asset performance.

(Featuring Martha Peyton, PhD, CRE, Managing Director and Global Head, Real Assets Research, Aegon Asset Management)

https://www.afire.org/podcast/202214peyton/

US garden apartment investments are offering outsized return potential—but access remains a challenge.

The garden apartment subtype of the apartment sector is producing very encouraging total returns for property investors, beating all sector returns outside of industrial. The outperformance of garden apartments prevailed throughout 2021, but over the twenty-year average as well.

However, such properties have also not traditionally been held by institutional investors, which have historically focused more of their apartment holdings on high-rise properties where new construction is more plentiful.

On this episode of the AFIRE Podcast, recorded July 13, 2022, Martha Peyton, Managing Director of Real Assets Applied Research at Aegon Asset Management sat down with AFIRE CEO and podcast host Gunnar Branson to discuss her recent Summit Journal article to talk about the performance and the unique challenges of garden apartments.

(Episode 2022.13: Featuring Malcolm Johnson, CEO, Langdon Park Capital)

https://www.afire.org/podcast/malcolmjohnson/

Malcolm Johnson, CEO of Langdon Park Capital, believes true affordability is possible (even with the considerable obstacles present in the current business environment)—and that affordable strategies may be investors’ strongest emerging opportunity for core markets in the US.

The demand for affordable housing is climbing every day while the supply is not keeping pace. Reasons for the dearth of affordable housing range from municipal zoning and regulatory policies to NIMBYism and fractured supply chains—but despite these factors, Johnson makes the case for how it is still possible to invest in and create solid affordable housing and deliver consistent returns.

In this episode of the AFIRE Podcast, recorded on July 19, 2022, former professional football player-turned-real estate leader Malcolm Johnson sat down with AFIRE CEO and podcast host Gunnar Branson to talk about the new future of affordable housing and investment in the US.