Real estate private index fund systems and methods

Abstract

Systems and methods for creating and administering and a real estate private index fund as a single investable instrument which tracks a non-investable real estate index of open-ended funds with minimal tracking error.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is related to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61 / 839,988, filed Jun. 27, 2013.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present disclosure and related inventions pertain generally to computer-implemented systems and methods for providing novel investment opportunities, and more specifically to investments related to indexing private real estate investments and investments in private real estate funds.BACKGROUND[0003]There are a number of non-investable private real estate indices which are published by organizations such as IPD, NCREIF, NAREIT and PREA, These indices track and report on the aggregate performance of individual private open-ended real estate investment funds, referred to herein as “Component Funds”. Component Funds are available to qualified investors for investment on an individual basis. A single instrument that weights the Component Funds with respect to their percentage of the index and adjusts the weightings based on market value...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides an investment instrument that replicates or tracks the performance of a real estate index by rebalancing the weightings of the component funds based on quarterly market values. The real estate private index fund offers additional liquidity, allows investors to generate market rate returns with minimal variance from index returns, and provides a market value for transfer of interests based on component fund valuations on a quarterly basis. The fund structure is designed to provide greater liquidity and accommodates individual investors as well as investment advisors in ongoing portfolio allocation strategies. The system and methodology facilitate the determination of real estate pricing data and combine it with pricing data related to liquid securities and accrued expenses to calculate the net asset value of the fund. The patent text also includes a computer-implemented method for redeeming shares of the fund and a computer system for executing contributions and distributions.

Problems solved by technology

The queues limit the ability of an investor to rebalance in a timely fashion given the lag the queues may create for entering or exiting the Component Fund.

First, the NPI was not investible, whereby investors would be incapable of replicating the index performance since such a large percentage of the investment universe was held in single investor accounts.

Lastly, the NPI tracked unleveraged real estate returns, which was inconsistent with the leverage profile of many real estate investors.

Despite the fundamental improvements in benchmarks and indices, private real estate has never had an investable index product such as many other assets classes, (e.g., stocks, bonds, and commodities which all have indexing funds).

To date, the difficulty of having an investable index has been related to a number of factors including, (i) the amount of investment capital required to invest in each Component Fund is significant, (ii) entrance and withdrawal queues for Component Funds, and (iii) rebalancing an investment that provides limited liquidity (e.g., quarterly).

There are currently no investable “beta” strategies or index products private real estate investment.

While these types of products are readily available for liquid investment securities, such as stocks and bonds, alternative products, such as private real estate or private equity, do not provide investors index product offerings.

However, calculating an NAV for a fund that holds commercial real estate assets is much harder, as there is no market with listed securities type liquidity for the assets.

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