The ten largest limited partnerships accounting for at least£3.5 billion of total investment between them. And DTZ Researchestimates that 55 of the main pension funds, life and insurancecompanies have now invested in these structures; as they havebecome widely accepted as a means of indirect property investment.Insurance companies and pension funds together account for nearlyhalf of all limited partnership investors. However, the pace ofgrowth in the market has slowed since its peak in 1999 when 25 newpartnerships were established.

DTZ believes partnerships are most effective when they focus onspecific property types such as shopping centres, factory outletcentres, residential or leisure investments which requirespecialist and often intensive management, but to attract investorsthey need a strong rationale to justify the additional costs ofmanagement.