SHARETIAA-CREF excels at commercial real estate — an asset class many investors overlook. Because real estate seldom moves in tandem with either the stock or bond markets, it has the potential to provide diversification benefits.
TIAA-CREF made its first real estate investments in 1947; today we are one of the largest commercial real estate owners in the nation. We have more than 400 real estate investments in the United States and Europe with an equity investment of approximately $15 billion as of September 30, 2009.
The TIAA-CREF Real Estate Account
More than half of our real estate holdings belong to the TIAA Real Estate Account (view prospectus). Created in 1995, this innovative product was the first to allow retirement savers to invest directly in a broadly diversified portfolio of income-producing real estate properties.
Because diversification is just as important for real estate as it is for stocks and bonds, TIAA-CREF’s real estate holdings are well diversified, both by region and by type of property. Our property holdings are spread throughout the geographical regions of the United States and include offices, apartment houses, industrial properties and retail complexes.
Read our Real Estate Account Composite Index Comparison (PDF), comparing the TIAA-CREF Real Estate Account performance against that of the overall Real Estate market.
