The fund has around 4 per cent of its assets in real estate, meaning that as much as €200m could be up for tender.

Gunther Schiendl, member of the fund’s board and chief investment officer, explained that, as a result of falling real estate prices, there are now several interesting opportunities in the asset class, particularly in Asia.

He said: “It’s an opportunity we’ve been waiting for. We feel there is a strong argument for increasing exposure to Asia in general, but certainly real estate.”

The fund is also looking at property investments in the US and Europe, with a particular interest in what it called ‘elder care related real estate’.

Mr Schiendl said: “We believe in looking at elder care related property and are examining it from a financial and responsible investment perspective.

Aging in the EU is a major topic so as a pension fund we are drawn in.”

VBV is Austria’s biggest pension fund in terms of assets under management and has 180,000 members. Under the Austrian system, second pillar pension funds compete for members, something that has caused membership fees to plummet.

The fund is currently running some 40 different schemes, but its average equity allocation is between 30 per cent and 40 per cent, while 10 per cent is in hedge funds, 4 per cent is allocated to real estate with the remainder in fixed income.

Last year, its returns ranged depending on the particular scheme, but were between 0 per cent and 4 per cent. This was a fall from 2006, where most returns came in above 6 per cent.

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