What are real assets?

• Real estate

Real estate refers to physical property that can be bought, sold, or developed upon. It includes land, buildings, and residential homes, like houses and apartments.

• Natural resources

These are resources that can be found in the natural world, such as oil, crops, timber, and minerals.

• Commodities

Commodities are raw materials, like gold, silver, and oil. These are traded on the commodity markets.

• Infrastructure

These are real assets that provide certain services to society, such as roads, bridges, and utilities.

Real assets provide the benefit of portfolio diversification as they often have different return characteristics than financial assets. Real assets are also often used to hedge against inflation because their value does not rely solely on the status of the financial markets.