ALFI REIF Survey 2024
Welcome to the ALFI REIF survey 2024.
Each year, our survey provides a more comprehensive picture of the real estate investment fund market in Luxembourg.
The 2024 edition highlights growth, flexibility and global reach of real estate funds, as they evolve to meet changing market conditions. Notably, it confirms the steady increase of lightly regulated investment Funds.
Indeed, Luxembourg remains the favoured location for setting up and managing multi-geographical and multi-sectoral regulated REIFs, which continue to attract institutional investors and fund managers globally. In a year affected by market stress, 80.75% of funds decided to hold onto their investments, while only 1.4% opted to liquidate and reinvest, a clear sign of the sector's resilience.
The REIF Survey 2024 confirms the steady growth of larger funds and the overall rise in assets under management (AuM).
Net assets under management in Luxembourg real estate funds (2024)
Source: CSSF
Highlights of the survey
Lighter structures gaining ground
The survey confirms a strong shift toward lightly regulated fund structures. RAIFs, manager-regulated AIFs and non-regulated vehicles now represent 69.5% of the market, with the significant evolution from just one RAIF in 2016 to 226 in 2024.
Regulatory Regime
Source: ALFI REIF Survey 2024
Institutional focus with broad strategies
REIFs remain primarily institutional with a EU base of investors: 80.4% of investors come from Europe, and 83% of funds serve 25 or fewer investors.
Most common investor origin
Source: ALFI REIF Survey 2024
Target sector
Source: ALFI REIF Survey 2024
Resilience under pressure
Despite market headwinds, Luxembourg REIFs showed notable resilience. Over 80% of funds chose to hold their investments during challenging conditions rather than liquidating or reinvesting. Only 4.5% of funds suspended redemptions, while 16% processed redemptions in kind, indicating that most managers rely on strong governance rather than reactive measures.
Liquidity management considerationa and special situations
Source: ALFI REIF Survey 2024
Trends in size, fees and leverage
Smaller funds continue to make up the bulk of the market, but larger vehicles are gaining ground. Fee structures remain largely based on NAV, while performance fees are in decline.
Source: ALFI REIF Survey 2024
SFDR
If most REIFs remain classified as Article 6 under SFDR, 24 funds upgraded to Article 8 or 9, a positive signal for sustainability integration.
Source: ALFI REIF Survey 202
About this survey
The ALFI REIF survey is compiled annually by the ALFI head office with the help of the ALFI REIF Survey Working Group in the most comprehensive form possible.
The ALFI REIF Survey Working Group would like to thank all those involved in the survey, from responding to the survey questions and compiling the data to providing commentary.
Objectives
The main objective of producing this survey is to gain an understanding of market trends rather than claiming to provide complete and comprehensive data, although a significant proportion of the Luxembourg REIF market is captured, see section V.
Methodology
The ALFI REIF survey was conducted during the third quarter of 2024 and reflects the market composition as at the end of September 2024.
It is based on a comprehensive questionnaire that included questions relating to each fund’s:
- liquidity management actions related to various factors (Covid-19, geopolitical, inflation and central bank responses),
- legal structure and regime,
- investment style,
- geographical investment region,
- target segment of investment,
- net asset value (NAV), gross asset value (GAV) and target gearing,
- distribution method,
- fees,
- investor type and origin,
- accounting standard (GAAP),
- consolidated accounts,
- INREV NAV,
- valuation methodology and service providers,
- sustainability investment,
- liquidity management.
In order to offer additional perspective and insight into market trends, certain results are compared with those of previous ALFI surveys.