European non-listed real estate funds last year delivered their best performance since 2006, according to INREV.
The industry body鈥檚 annual index recorded a 9.7% return, the highest since before the financial crisis and up from 8% in 2014, according to INREV鈥檚 latest Annual Index.
Overall returns were boosted by the performance of value-added funds, which rose to 14.2%.
Core funds also registered an improved return of 9%.
Closed-end (10.7%) funds slightly outperformed open-ended funds (9.3%).
Henri Vuong, INREV鈥檚 director of research and market information, said European non-listed real estate had recovered well following the financial crisis.
鈥淥ur latest index shows the industry is in good health,鈥� she said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 particularly encouraging to see positive returns weren鈥檛 limited to just the biggest markets 鈥� in fact, all the fund types we tracked were in the plus column last year.鈥�
INREV said the UK topped the performance list of country-specific funds, although the overall return was down to 12% from 16.7% in 2014.
鈥淭here has been a lot of speculation recently about where we are in the cycle,鈥� Vuong said.
鈥淎lthough the overall return for 2015 was the highest in nine years, the 2006 peak was closer to double this figure.
鈥淲e are unlikely to see a similar high point in the medium term, suggesting lessons have been learned and the industry鈥檚 long-term trajectory is more sustainable.鈥�
Dutch funds climbed into second place following a significant improvement from the 3.4% recorded last year to 9.6%.
French funds followed in third with 8.8%, and German funds were fourth with 7.4%.
Finnish (up from -1.1% in 2014 to 7.2% in 2015), Nordic (from 3.9% to 10.6%), Southern European (from -1.1% to 6%) and Italian funds (from -5.2% to 2.2%) were among the other top improvers.
Single-sector strategies saw good returns, the best of which was achieved by industrial and logistics funds, at 15.9%.
Office returned 10.1%, retail 10% and residential 9.7%.
