Capital strategies: Defensive anchors, opportunistic plays and the rise of partnerships

The Active Capital Survey 2026 indicates an investor base delicately balanced between caution and conviction.

Planned investment allocations split almost evenly between defensive strategies and higher-risk approaches, a structural reality in an environment where ongoing resilience matters as much as outright return.

Capital runs along the spectrum from stability to opportunity

Planned capital deployment for 2026 is split across risk strategies.

26% planned of investment is set to target Core ($37 billion), 23% Core Plus ($33 billion), 19% Value Add ($27 billion) and 28% Opportunistic ($40 billion).

This reflects a complex, early cycle market where investors are managing downside risk and looking for income, while positioning for opportunities in sectors with structural tailwinds.

Core Plus leads intent, but core remains the anchor

Core Plus dominates intent (69% of respondents), yet Core retains the highest average portfolio weighting, 51% among those planning to target core in 2026. This underscores Core’s enduring role as a stabiliser, a hedge against volatility and a foundation for income resilience.

Opportunistic strategies – target repricing and complexity

Opportunistic strategies, targeted by 28% of respondents, are likely to be focused on repricing and thematic growth, particularly in offices with repositioning potential, logistics in Europe and the US, and living sectors such as multifamily and co/flex-living.

Return targets highlight the risk premium

Respondent IRR expectations scale predictably with risk:

• Core: mean 7.4% unlevered; 9.5% levered
• Core Plus: 9.1% unlevered; 11.7% levered
• Value Add: 11.7% unlevered; 16.1% levered
• Opportunistic: 15.3% unlevered; 20.1% levered

The gap across strategies, up to more than ten percentage points on a levered basis, reflects liquidity, complexity, execution risk and market volatility, reinforcing the need for disciplined underwriting and selective positioning.

The required returns also indicate that investors less reliant on leverage retain a pricing edge in competitive bidding, particularly for higher-risk strategies where debt cost volatility can materially impact outcomes.

For a deeper dive into how return strategy analysis underpins these decisions, see From core to complexity, which expands on the interplay between risk-adjusted returns and capital structuring across the investment spectrum.

Partnerships to become strategic accelerators?

68% of survey respondents indicated they would consider joint ventures or capital partnerships, with only 10% ruling them out entirely. These structures are increasingly attractive because they deliver three key benefits. First, they provide access to specialist expertise, enabling investors to enter sectors benefiting from structural tailwinds, such as data centres. Second, they allow for diversification across sectors and the risk spectrum, which is particularly valuable in an environment where resilience and balance are priorities. Third, they create the ability to access large lot sizes, a critical factor in capital-intensive sectors where ticket sizes can otherwise be prohibitive for individual investors.

Restraints on transactions over the past 18–24 months have also resulted in some investors holding assets longer than initially anticipated. In many cases, these assets fall outside their typical business focus, creating a mismatch between operational expertise and strategic intent. Bringing in specialist expertise and/or fresh capital to carry through the next business plan is often the most effective solution. This dynamic reinforces the appeal of partnerships, not only as a means of accessing new sectors but as a pragmatic response to legacy holdings that require repositioning or active asset management to unlock value.

The high proportion of respondents open to these structures underscores that partnerships will become increasingly central, not only for higher-return repositioning strategies but also for core approaches seeking scale, local expertise or diversification.