Mark Siezen on managing risk through operational real estate 

4 August 2025

PERE recently spoke with Bouwinvest CEO Mark Siezen about the growing role of operational real estate in institutional portfolios. In the interview, Siezen explains that Bouwinvest has steadily increased its exposure to operationally managed assets in its international portfolio. “We want to get access to the right market-sector combinations and we want to be working with the right people, and the right people are more and more not just the real estate platform, but also the operator,” he explains. “The value of real estate and the value of a building, if you will, is driven by the value of the activities happening within that particular building.”

According to Siezen, this approach also reshapes how investors think about risk. Traditional long-term leases may appear safe, but they can leave investors blind to the operational performance of tenants. By actively engaging with operators, institutional investors can better understand and manage tenant risk, he tells PERE. 

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