Private Real Estate: The Ascent of Alternatives

May 13, 2025 | 10 Min Read
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Executive summary:

  • Many alternative real estate sectors have emerged as popular investment areas in recent years.
  • Formal inclusion of select alternative sectors into NCREIF’s Open-End Diversified Core Equity (NFI-ODCE) index in 2024 solidified the importance and further institutionalization of the space.
  • Investor appetite towards alternative sectors should continue to accelerate given the diversification benefits they provide to core real estate portfolios.

As investors look for more tailored and adaptive real estate investment opportunities to complement existing core real estate portfolios across industrial, apartment, hotel, office and retail, alternative real estate sectors have increasingly become popular, mainstream investment destinations.

A good analogy for this growing interest in alternatives is the rise in popularity of various streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. These platforms offer complementary, yet more targeted, viewing options to traditional TV networks like ABC, NBC and CBS. While traditional networks remain a staple in everyday household consumption, the addition of these streaming services offer more specialized content for a diverse group of audiences with varied viewing preferences.

Inclusion in NFI-ODCE index underscores sector institutionalization

In early 2024, the National Council of Real Estate Fiduciaries (NCREIF) updated the property type definitions for the Open-End Diversified Core Equity (NFI-ODCE) index, one of the most widely used private real estate benchmarks. As a result, the NFI-ODCE index expanded from the five traditional property types (e.g., apartment, hotel, industrial, office and retail) to include three new property type categories, all within the alternatives segment; namely, self-storage, seniors housing and other. Additionally, the index recognized six new property subtypes: single family rental, manufactured housing and student housing (all of which fall under the newly defined broader residential umbrella, along with apartments) as well as industrial life science, office life science and medical office.1 This inclusion underscores that alternative sectors should have a place in institutional capital portfolios.

Select alternative real estate sectors with structural tailwinds

Senior housing: This sector has experienced a strong rebound post-pandemic with robust absorption, while the new supply pipeline is expected to remain low. The aging Baby Boomer generation also provides the sector with significant structural demand tailwinds going forward.

Senior Housing Occupancy

Student housing: Fundamentals in this alternative sector remain solid. Purpose-built supply is expected to be relatively muted, leading to an occupancy forecast of ~95% in the medium-term, while the forecast for rent growth remains in line with pre-pandemic levels, even after coming down from its double-digit peak from 2022-2023.

Student Housing Rent Growth and Vacancy

Data centers: Driven by hyperscalers, artificial intelligence (AI) and the expansion of edge computing, the global data center market is expected to grow at a 28% CAGR from 2024-2034. The DeepSeek news from China in January 2025 flustered the market initially, but the continual growth in global data consumption, the expectation that AI rollout is not stopping overnight and big tech companies’ (e.g., Meta, Microsoft, Google, etc.) continued spending commitments to AI data centers provide the sector a favorable outlook.

Global Hyperscale Data Center Market Size
USD in Billions

Long-term tailwinds propel alternative real estate forward

Alternative real estate sectors, in many cases, bolster strong long-term fundamentals and demographic tailwinds. Coupled with significant investor appetite and diversification benefits to core real estate, they should continue to play an important role in investor portfolios going forward.

Similar to the rise of streaming platforms, with so many alternative real estate sector and sub-sector options to choose from, the question has become, which platform(s) will investors use to access this growing space?

We provide further insights and observations across real estate in our 2025 Real Estate Market Overview. Please complete the form below to receive an emailed copy of the report.

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