A challenging investment environment is pushing real estate money managers to look beyond traditional investments to niche areas that yield high returns.

The four main sectors of retail, multifamily, office and industrial are being passed over for investments in everything from parking lots to memory-care facilities, Pensions & Investments reports. And while institutional real estate allocations have been steadily rising over the last four years and are expected to reach 10.3% in 2017, according to Cornell University’s annual real estate survey, investors are starting to get nervous.

“We are seven years into the [economic] cycle,'' says Hodes Weill & Associates managing partner Doug Weill. “There is geopolitical unrest, risk is rising around the world and investors worry about a possible increase in interest rates.”

Those concerns are pushing real estate investors into unchartered territory. [P&I]