Stalling car auction sales suggest broader consumer weakness
In Credit Weekly Snapshot – November 2024
2025 Equity Outlook: Will lower rates and strong earnings be enough to keep markets up?
Real estate
$26.2bn
Asset under Management*
30+
Year track record
125+
Investment professionals*
As of December 2023 * Excludes the assets and investment professionals of the real estate credit teams.
A multi-award winning real estate manager
Property Manager of the Year
LAPF Investment Awards 2022
UK Core Property Manager of the Year
Professional Pensions Awards 2022 & 2019 WINNER
Highest total return relative to benchmark
MSCI UK Property Awards 2021 (ZPF)
Local experts, connected globally
In a world where change is constant, successful real estate investing is about adapting to harness new opportunities – something our platform of diverse expertise and agility was built to do.
A key component of our multi-faceted Alternatives business
Columbia Threadneedle’s global real estate capability is a key part of a $33.5bn Alternatives business, supported by a leading global asset management company with a broad range of actively managed investment strategies and solutions covering global, regional and domestic markets.
Our defining strengths to deliver long-term value creation
We aim to get close to our customers, exceed expectations and deliver outperformance
Experienced, dynamic, responsible
Deep local expertise in key markets
High conviction thematic philosophy
Active investment and asset management
Our real estate teams
Through its combined resources as a global investment business, Columbia Threadneedle provides the responsive partnership and market expertise investors need to manage their real estate investments.
Based in the UK, Continental Europe and the US, our real estate teams work together to offer a global perspective for clients by bringing our teams’ insights together. Our teams use their deep knowledge of local markets, specialist approaches and a network of connections to unearth opportunities not all managers can access. We combine an entrepreneurial approach with sophisticated, structured, institutional practices.
Our teams' sourcing advantages are rooted in a highly disciplined investment strategy aimed at the leading indicators of real estate demand. Our investment professionals are able to efficiently and expertly cover their markets and cultivate long-term relationships enhancing our sourcing capabilities. This existing and growing network provides outstanding on-the-ground execution and helps uncover compelling off-market investment opportunities.
Direct real estate
Listed real estate equity
Real estate credit
Our real estate capabilities and specialisms
A clear and consistent client centricity lies at the heart of our real estate offering, with solutions available for a wide range of investors including pension schemes, institutions, platforms, private wealth and retail investors. We curate investment strategies across the risk/return spectrum to suit client expectations on returns, sustainability outcomes, liquidity and leverage. These strategies then deploy capital either thematically, focused on favoured sectors or themes, or are dynamically balanced to provide exposure across a range of sectors or geographies.
In direct real estate, core/core+ strategies seek durable cash flow while mitigating downside risk by investing in stabilised properties and portfolios. Value-add strategies invest at favourable points in the capital market cycle in properties which can offer significant upside potential from value appreciation through physical improvements and lease repositioning. Opportunistic strategies aim to achieve significant capital appreciation in properties through rehabilitation or development.
Listed real estate equity (Real Estate Investment Trusts or “REITs”) offers liquid exposure to many real estate sectors and can provide enhanced diversification to real estate portfolios by geography, sector and property type.
REITs typically own high quality real estate assets with many of the leases tied to inflation or fixed escalators. REITs therefore have the potential to generate a reliable and growing income stream for shareholders, and assets could see further capital appreciation over time as rents grow and replacement costs increase.
Listed real estate companies can offer exposure to many sectors that are supported by structural growth trends, including logistics, data centres, healthcare and residential assets.
Investing in real estate responsibly
At Columbia Threadneedle, we continue to evolve our approach to responsible property investment framework to consider and integrate ESG factors in a manner consistent with our responsible investment philosophy and approach. Our responsible business vision in real estate is based on a framework which encompasses several key principles.
For physical properties we hold, we consider all relevant environmental and social factors with integrity and rigour, as appropriate to each of our assets.
At an individual asset level, we typically seek to determine exposure to short- and longer-term climate risks and look to capture data relating to energy demand, consumption, carbon emissions and biodiversity to inform risk mitigation strategies and improvement opportunities that can deliver positive change.
Our approach to integrating ESG factors on an asset level and portfolio basis is supported through the relevant ESG steering and project groups within our real estate teams. Along with Columbia Threadneedle’s expert Responsible Investment Team, they keep a watchful eye on emerging risks and opportunities presented by market trends and legislative change.
We are seeing that for properties to remain relevant to occupiers and investors, they need to deliver best in class sustainability credentials.
In addition to direct intervention in our property assets, as a significant investor in listed real estate equity, we also actively engage with the property companies we invest in to drive better outcomes for our clients. We heighten pressure on investee companies to enhance their standards of governance and increase the provision of social and environmental outcomes data, informing our view of their long-term prospects.
Our leadership team
Direct real estate and listed real estate equity
Our direct real estate and listed real estate equity teams encompass 125+ investment professionals and are are supported by a comprehensive operating platform across such functions as Property Management Oversight, ESG, Research, Operations, Tax, Accounting, Risk, Compliance, Governance and Insurance.
Joseph Vullo is Head of UK Real Estate at Columbia Threadneedle Investments. He took up this role in October 2020 and is responsible for investment performance and shaping the strategy for the UK Real Estate business. He joined the company as an Asset Manager in 2000, becoming Head of Asset Management in 2008 and a member of the Property Business Management team in 2010.
Before joining the company, Joseph worked in private practice for Drivers Jonas advising a mixture of private investors and property companies.
Joseph holds a diploma in Estate Management from the College of Estate Management, Reading, and is a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.
Richard Kirby, MRICS, joined Columbia Threadneedle Real Estate Partners (formerly BMO Real Estate Partners) in 1990. He has been a fund manager since 1995 and has experience of managing commercial property portfolios across all sectors for open-ended, closed-ended and life fund clients. Richard has been lead manager of the Balanced Commercial Property Trust since launch in 2005 where his responsibilities include advising on and implementing property portfolio strategy, sales, acquisitions, asset enhancement and management. He is a director and sits on both the Executive Committee and Investment Committee of Columbia Threadneedle Real Estate Partners. He is a Chartered Surveyor and a member of the Investment Property Forum and the British Council of Offices.
Iris Schöberl is Managing Director of CT Real Estate Partners GmbH & Co. KG, member of the Columbia Threadneedle Real Estate Partners Executive Committee, as well as member of the Investment Committees of Columbia Threadneedle Real Estate Partners Germany and Europe.
In January 2000, Iris founded the predecessor company REIT Asset Management GmbH Deutschland, which merged with the real estate unit of F&C in 2008 and was bought by Bank of Montreal (BMO) in 2014. BMO Real Estate Partners Germany has become a part of Columbia Threadneedle Investments UK International Limited in November 2021.
Iris has more than 35 years of experience in the real estate business. In addition to being managing director of Columbia Threadneedle Real Estate Partners Germany, she has been elected member of the board and thus vice chair of the German Property Federation ZIA in 2021. Furthermore, she is Deputy Chairwoman of the ZIA Trading Committee, member of the supervisory committee of ECE, ATMIRA group and the project „Stadtlabore für Deutschland“. She also is a founding member of the association “Frauen in der Immobilienwirtschaft” (Women in the real estate business).
Marcus has been managing TR Property Investment Trust since 2011 and is a partner at Thames River Capital (now part of Columbia Threadneedle Investments). Previously he was a fund manager at Henderson Global Investors from 1997 to 2004. Along with managing the TR Property Investment Trust, he is a co-manager of the CT Property Growth & Income Fund (which he launched in 2005) and CT Global Real Estate Securities Fund. Prior to joining Henderson, Marcus was an Associate Partner at Knight Frank. He is a Chartered Surveyor and holds a BSc (Hons) in Land Management from Reading University.
Insights
You may also like
Investment strategies
We offer a broad range of actively managed investment strategies and solutions covering global, regional and domestic markets and asset classes.
Our funds
Important Information
For use by professional clients and/or equivalent investor types in your jurisdiction (not to be used with or passed on to retail clients). For marketing purposes. The above information is intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered representative of any particular investment. This should not be considered an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments, or to provide investment advice or services.
In the UK: Issued by Threadneedle Asset Management Limited, No. 573204 and/or Columbia Threadneedle Management Limited, No. 517895, both registered in England and Wales and authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority.
In the EEA: Issued by Threadneedle Management Luxembourg S.A., registered with the Registre de Commerce et des Sociétés (Luxembourg), No. B 110242 and/or Columbia Threadneedle Netherlands B.V., regulated by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), registered No. 08068841.
In Switzerland: Issued by Threadneedle Portfolio Services AG, Registered address: Claridenstrasse 41, 8002 Zurich, Switzerland.
In the Middle East: The information presented above is distributed by Columbia Threadneedle Investments (ME) Limited, which is regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA). This information is not intended as financial advice and is only intended for persons with appropriate investment knowledge who meet the regulatory criteria to be classified as a Professional Client or Market Counterparty and no other person should act upon it. The above information and any other information or opinions subsequently supplied or given to you are strictly confidential and for the sole use of those attending the presentation. It may not be reproduced in any form or passed on to any third party without the express written permission of CTIME. By accepting delivery of this presentation, you agree that it is not to be copied or reproduced in whole or in part and that you will not disclose its contents to any other person.
In Hong Kong: Issued by Threadneedle Portfolio Services Hong Kong Limited 天利投資管理香港有限公司. Unit 3004, Two Exchange Square, 8 Connaught Place, Hong Kong, which is licensed by the Securities and Futures Commission (“SFC”) to conduct Type 1 regulated activities (CE:AQA779). Registered in Hong Kong under the Companies Ordinance (Chapter 622), No. 1173058.
In Singapore: Issued by Threadneedle Investments Singapore (Pte.) Limited, 3 Killiney Road, #07-07, Winsland House 1, Singapore 239519, which is regulated in Singapore by the Monetary Authority of Singapore under the Securities and Futures Act (Chapter 289). Registration number: 201101559W. This advertisement has not been reviewed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
In Australia: Issued by Threadneedle Investments Singapore (Pte.) Limited [“TIS”], ARBN 600 027 414. TIS is exempt from the requirement to hold an Australian financial services licence under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and relies on Class Order 03/1102 in respect of the financial services it provides to wholesale clients in Australia. The information presented above should only be distributed in Australia to “wholesale clients” as defined in Section 761G of the Corporations Act. TIS is regulated in Singapore (Registration number: 201101559W) by the Monetary Authority of Singapore under the Securities and Futures Act (Chapter 289), which differ from Australian laws.
Columbia Threadneedle Investments is the global brand name of the Columbia and Threadneedle group of companies.
