A highly selective and disciplined approach to real estate lending

With expertise dating back four decades, our end-to-end loan platform provides commercial real estate senior debt and whole loan financing for a wide range of property investors and developers. As one of the largest originators of real estate debt in Europe (Source: PFR Top European RED managers 2023), we have deep relationships across the market, allowing us to source attractive deals the broader market may not see. We take the view persistent excess returns come via excellent deal sourcing and a flexible but deliberately selective approach. We provide senior and junior financing to support the acquisition or development of properties across all major sectors (office, retail, industrial, leisure, healthcare, and living sector) across investment grade and non-investment grade assets in the UK and Europe.  We also embrace newer sectors and structures that may offer ‘complexity’ or ‘novelty’ premia.

Why invest?

Real estate debt can offer investors a reliable income stream and stability of cash flows with additional diversification benefits. Our approach is focused on managing the downside, primarily by lending against core, essential assets with asset security and strong financial covenants. We also offer investors sustainable solutions, including sustainable transition loans, leveraging our independent credit and governance framework and non-binding environmental, social and governance integration

Cash flow

Helpful for institutional investors with defined cash-flow criteria.

Diversification

Historic performance demonstrates diversification benefits versus liquid market opportunities.

Illiquidity premium

The private nature of the assets and networks needed to access them typically command an illiquidity premium over comparable liquid credits.

Security

High-quality collateral and strong covenant protection contribute to improved recovery rates in the event of default.

Key risks of real estate debt

Investment risk

The value of an investment and any income from it can go down as well as up. Where investments or loans are in other currencies or countries, values can fluctuate in response to changes in exchange rates. Investors may not get back the original amount invested.

Illiquidity risk

Certain assets held could, by nature, be hard to value or to sell at a desired time or at a price considered to be fair (especially in large quantities), and as a result their prices could be very volatile.

Complexity risk

Counterparties can be diverse, so successful investment requires appropriate credit analysis and the expertise to understand investment risks.

Investment insights

Investment thinking that brings together the collective insight of Aviva Investors’ teams from across the globe on the key themes influencing markets.

Seizing the moment: The outlook for real estate debt

Gregor Bamert, Sima Kotecha and Nick Solomon discuss the recovery in real estate debt markets in 2024 and the opportunities emerging.

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Private Markets Study 2025

In the seventh edition of the study, we collected the views of 500 institutional investors around the world. We delved into some of the key questions facing private market investors today: Why do they invest in private markets? How do they expect the asset classes to perform over the next few years? What are the biggest barriers to investing today? And how do they incorporate sustainability?

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House View

No one can predict the future. But our quarterly House View sets out the collective wisdom of our investment teams on the current state of global markets – and where they might be heading.

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Real estate debt team

Meet our real estate debt investment team.

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Private markets

As one of Europe’s largest private markets investment managers, we have the scale to access the full depth and breadth of private markets.

Real estate

Outcome-oriented solutions in real estate, across equity debt and long income, through strategies that span the risk spectrum, from lower-risk options generating long-term income to more opportunistic investments.