CORFAC News

By 2025 CORFAC President Daniel Shindleman, CCIM, MRICS, Bridgemer AG/CORFAC International, Switzerland

Whether you’re a seasoned investor in real estate holdings or consider yourself in exploration mode, regularly reviewing your portfolio is essential. It’s easy to overlook this during times of economic instability – when urgent concerns like inflationary costs become more prevalent. Even though most real estate holdings are a longer-term play, you don’t want to wait for the market to force you to make a decision. 

Just like managing your physical health, your portfolio health requires working with a trusted advisor. A real estate professional who understands your business or family office strategy can diagnose how it interacts with global and local market nuances. On a quarterly or annual schedule, you should review your current holdings and discuss any moves you’d like to make. 

A Checklist for Real Estate Health
Understand your goals. You should consider whether your primary strategy is portfolio diversification, generating income from leasing, business expansion, or wealth allocation for your family. 

Set your timing. Decide if your goals are shorter or longer term. If you’re a seller, do you have family arrangements to consider? If you’re a buyer during a time when a lot of capital is sitting on the sidelines, you may have an advantage if you’re ready to act fast when the right property becomes available. 

Identify your interest areas. Let your advisor know if you want to invest in certain regions, property types, or industries. This can also be an opportunity to explore stretch goals or passion projects or bring in the younger generation’s perspectives. Your advisor can help you understand tax benefits and currency hedges. For example, if you have international expenses, like family studying abroad, you might want to have an asset that produces income in the same currency. 

How much time and money should you allocate? Updating distressed or outdated real estate to put back on the market requires commitment and capital, and understanding the realistic return, to evaluate if it’s worth it. Or, in another scenario, if you’re interested in a hot asset type such as warehouse or data center investment, you may have to go into a less saturated region to avoid competing in high-priced markets. 

Prescription for Portfolio Success
Amid market volatility, a healthy real estate portfolio can offer stability for capital placement, generate income, support business expansion, or provide wealth for future generations. But you need to take regular and comprehensive stock to make sure it’s delivering those benefits. Work with a real estate specialist who can put your property investments in the context of your greater goals and prescribe a plan for sustainable wealth.

Originally published in Wealth Management's 2025 Mid-Year Outlook.