Time for a new onshore professional fund?

The Association of Real Estate Funds (AREF) has proposed a new type of Professional Investors Fund (PIF) which aims to offer an onshore alternative to current offshore structures used to hold UK real estate. It would be unlisted, tax-transparent and have tradeable units, and would not itself be required to be authorised for UK regulatory purposes.

Osborne Clarke's head of real estate tax, Tracey Wright, and Alison Riddle, a partner in the financial institutions group, explore the proposal, its advantages and challenges in this article for Estates Gazette magazine (requires EGi subscription)