Data: The key ingredient
For most capital allocators, effective investment decision-making relies heavily on the availability of high-quality data. It’s the objective evidence that underpins broader insights and gut instinct and drives the ultimate judgement about whether, when, and where to invest in non-listed real estate. IQ caught up with Casper Hesp, to discuss the continuing importance of data, how it must evolve to meet increasingly sophisticated requirements, and why it will be one of INREV’s central priorities in 2026.
A key focus right from the start
Gathering and sharing data has been a central pillar of INREV’s mission to improve the transparency of the European non-listed real estate investment industry from the association’s earliest beginnings.
An industry-wide fund-level data set seemed like a conceptual pipe dream until INREV cracked the challenges of efficiently capturing and compiling consistent data from market participants. Launched in 2003, the INREV Fund Index was an important stake in the ground. Twenty-three years on, the association’s suite of indices has evolved considerably, and data as a whole has become a full standalone product offering for INREV members.
The growth of the industry over this period has been equally striking. Between 2005 and 2025, the European non-listed real estate investment industry expanded approximately fivefold, increasing from €180 billion to €1 trillion. Over a later period, from 2011 to 2025, average real estate allocations by global institutional investors rose from around 8.8% to approximately 12%.
There’s no hard line directly linking the expansion in the volume and quality of available data to the increased flow of institutional capital into real estate. But neither can this correlation be dismissed as purely coincidental. More data has meant greater transparency across the sector, reinforcing institutional confidence and supporting higher allocations. After all, capital allocators make no secret of their need for deep, reliable data to inform their decisions. Before committing to new investments, they seek a holistic view – a very broad data set that covers anything from fund and asset-level performance to leverage and fees, enabling them to compare opportunities on a like-for-like basis.
Maintaining momentum
As the industry has progressed and diversified, so has data needed to reflect and keep pace with changing requirements.
From INREV’s point of view, the ongoing development and roll-out of fund style and/or sector-specific indices has always been a vital part of its offering. The introduction of the European ODCE Index, the Global IRR Index and the Living Index are good examples of targeted data evolution that has helped the industry better understand new and emerging opportunities.
But the INREV data journey has also been bound up in innovations that help to shape the direction of travel and drive greater levels of knowledge and expertise. The introduction of the INREV NAV, for example, was a key moment. It has ensured a level of consistency in comparing data sets, which is critical for institutional investors. Similarly, the SDDS has provided a common language that enables managers to capture standard information and data points that are of particular significance and value to investors and, again, reinforces comparability.
Looking ahead: data as a strategic pillar
In the interview, Casper made clear that data will be one of INREV’s key strategic pillars in 2026 — and for good reason.
‘While progress to date has been rapid and positive, there’s still much the industry needs to think about from a data perspective’, he says. The speed of technological innovation and change is a case in point. AI will doubtless have a key part to play in how the real estate industry continues to improve data capture and analysis, and ultimately to enhance the quality, depth, breadth and reliability of data sets.
As the European industry body, INREV is committed to evolving and, if necessary, creating new indices and tools wherever these can add value, as well as supporting market participants by sharing knowledge through specific training courses and practical insights. But Casper added, ‘there’s also a need for greater collective participation. The more market participants contribute to industry-wide indices, the richer and more valuable these become. And the better the quality of data, the greater the level of transparency across the industry.’
The bottom line
‘This is a critical consideration because in an increasingly data-rich environment, relative transparency can’t be allowed to become the barrier that stems capital flows from institutional investors’, Casper concludes. ‘Other asset classes have long taken this message to heart. How our industry evolves over the next decade or two will depend heavily on getting data right.’