When Wall Street veteran Bob Steers co-founded his firm in 1986, he and his business partner placed “a bet on a vision” that the US property market was on the cusp of considerable change.

Now almost four decades later, the CEO of US-listed asset manager Cohen & Steers is braced for another defining moment as the sector adapts to the sea change of the pandemic. Steers, who helped pioneer the first mutual funds that invest in real estate investment trusts back in the 1980s, believes there is an upcoming “next generation” of investment in liquid real estate funds — driven by those investors who have typically gained exposure to property using traditional open-ended funds.