Real estate warrants a larger share of global multi-asset portfolios than it now commands, according to the latest research from ING Real Estate Investment Management.

The report entitled 'The Case For Real Estate 2010' states that unlisted real estate outperformed every other major investment asset class, with the exception of bonds, in the recent financial crisis. It also concludes that investors haven't yet 'missed the boat' and they can still achieve attractive returns even a year after many markets have bottomed out.

Timothy Bellman, global head of Research & Strategy at ING REIM said: 'Our research indicates that a higher representation of lowly geared unlisted real estate in institutional portfolios would have provided long-term investors with greater diversification benefits during the crisis. We also found that bricks and mortar seems to offer far better diversification by geography than other assets and lower correlations, which could have significantly reduced the overall volatility of investments.'