The Edhec Risk and Asset Management Research Centre and the IEIF, an independent French real estate research institute, have announced the launch of the Edhec IEIF Commercial Property Index (France).

The index will measure the performance of shares traded in an aggregate portfolio of unlisted property funds. This portfolio currently represents EUR7.5bn, spread between 3,400 assets.

It is a capitalisation weighted index that measures the performance of SCPIs (unlisted property trusts), collective investment companies that invest in commercial property (offices, shopping centres, logistics infrastructures and so on).

The index is computed on a net (change in the prices of components) and gross (performance with dividends reinvested) basis. The base date for the index is 31 December 1980.

It has been launched with the support of Finance Innovation, a global competitiveness institution.

Guy Marty, director of the IEIF, says: "In an uncertain environment in which the markets are playing a waiting game, transparency and liquidity are more than ever decisive challenges both for investors and for the entire economy.'

The index is published monthly. The composition of the index is reviewed at the close of every semester by an index committee made up of property and financial analysts, property managers, academics and representatives of IEIF and Edhec.