The portfolio investors' share in the real property market creates additional requirements in terms of liquidity, transactional costs and transparency of investments. In order to meet those expectations a system of indirect investing in real property has developed in capital markets. The most common legal forms of indirect investing include public limited companies, partnerships and investment funds. The operation of such "investment vehicles" is governed in some countries by special tax regulations. Respectively, the Polish market uses closed investment funds or specialised closed investment funds as proper legal forms of indirect investment. Closed Investment Funds (Fundusze Inwestycyjne Zamknięte - FIZ) may invest in shares in limited liability companies and receivables, less receivables from natural persons. Such investment strategy allows commitment in special purpose companies having real property and mortgage receivables resulting from funding of commercial property. Specialised Closed Investment Funds (Specjalistyczne Fundusze Inwestycyjne Zamknięte - SFIZ) may directly purchase ownership rights or co-ownership rights in real property. Another essential regulation is the right to charge assets with, for instance, mortgage loan up to 50% of net value of the fund's assets.

International experience suggests that real property constitutes a separate class of assets of a specific rate of return and risk rate. Fluctuations in investment profitability and risk reflect business cycle and its impact on particular classes of assets. A measure of the market condition is the vacancy rate or - in another approach - take up. This rate directly translates into property rentals, vital for the rate of return from investment. The significance of real property in investment portfolio results from a positive effect of diversification on the rate of return and risk of the portfolio. The reason for this is a relatively low correlation between the rate of return in the real property market and the rate of return from other classes of assets, in particular bonds.

Thus it can be expected that an indirect form of involvement in that market - via investment funds - should be an attractive solution, in particular for open-end pension funds operating on the market. In Polish context, the implementation of such strategy is hampered by a number of difficulties, in terms of unsatisfactory transparency of the real property market. An essential role in overcoming those limitations should be played by financial institutions, which under co-ordinated activities of a capital group, may create both the supply of facilities (cooperation with developers) and the investment demand (management of closed investment funds).