The Family Office Real Estate Partnership has launched a new European investment club that will enable family offices to invest collectively in commercial property, a space in which they have become major players in recent years, according to the London-based firm.

The company seeks to help family offices to invest directly in real estate, which it sees as more profitable, cost-efficient and transparent than traditional property funds.

Basil Demeroutis, managing partner of FORE, said in a statement that traditional institutional investors are being sidelined when “family offices are driving the shift back to core values and discipline in the property market which suffered from investor irresponsibility leading up to the financial crisis”.

“Family offices are cutting out the middlemen and creating their own investment ideas, often in partnership with one another,” Demeroutis said. “This is to be welcomed, as it signals the return of a back-to-basics approach to investing in commercial property.”

FORE also said that the private investors' share of the commercial property trade in Europe is growing. The market was worth about €115 billion ($152 billion) in total last year, the company said.