The investment landscape for real assets has shifted fundamentally in recent years. Higher interest rates, tighter financing conditions and heightened geopolitical uncertainty have raised return hurdles across private markets and made capital more selective. At the same time, the need for investment across housing, digital infrastructure and real estate remains substantial. The central question is no longer whether demand exists, but where that demand can be translated into investable opportunity.

This tension is most visible in sectors where structural need continues to outpace investment. Across housing, demographic change, affordability pressures and evolving patterns of living are reshaping where demand is most urgent, while supply constraints, policy risk and local market dispersion complicate deployment. Meanwhile, the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital services is accelerating demand for data centres, power and connectivity infrastructure, reshaping the investment case for the physical assets underpinning the digital economy. As real estate markets recover unevenly, success will increasingly depend on selectivity, operating expertise and disciplined underwriting rather than broad market appreciation.

With allocations to private markets and real assets increasingly extending beyond traditional institutional portfolios, this Financial Times event, hosted in partnership with Principal Asset Management, will bring together CIOs and senior investment decision-makers from institutional investors, asset owners, wealth management, private banks and investment advisory firms. Through a series of fireside interviews and panel discussions, participants will examine how macroeconomic uncertainty is reshaping capital allocation across real assets, where opportunities and risks are emerging, and how investors can adapt their portfolios to navigate an evolving investment landscape.