CNBC and Addepar launched a Family Office Portfolio Tracker last week showing public equities as the fastest-growing asset class among the ultra-wealthy, while real estate allocations fell to their lowest weighting in a decade. The tracker aggregates anonymized positioning data from 700+ family offices managing roughly $500B in combined assets. Public stocks now represent 34% of median portfolio construction, up 6 percentage points in eighteen months. Real estate dropped to 19%, down from 26% two years ago, according to the dataset.
Goldman Sachs research published the same week confirms the pivot. The bank surveyed 220 Asia-Pacific family offices with average AUM of $750M and found 68% plan to increase equity exposure over the next twelve months despite elevated volatility. A separate Early Bird Capital report tracking 140 Asian family offices documents heavy interest in U.S. technology names, particularly cloud infrastructure and enterprise software. Hong Kong-based offices added American equities at 2.4x the rate of European or domestic Chinese positions in Q4 2024, the fastest rotation since 2017.
The move reflects two forces. First, yields on prime real estate in gateway cities compressed to near-parity with ten-year government paper, eroding the historical carry advantage. Manhattan office cap rates averaged 5.8% in December, barely 90 basis points above Treasuries, while London and Hong Kong properties offer even thinner spreads. Second, family offices watched endowments and sovereign wealth funds capture the 2023-2024 AI rally and are adjusting portfolio construction to avoid being structurally underweight secular growth. The Early Bird report notes 42% of surveyed offices now run dedicated technology sleeves, triple the share from 2021.
Allocators should watch for further redemptions from private real estate funds in Q2, particularly those holding office or secondary-market retail. Family offices typically move in 18-24 month cycles when rebalancing illiquid books, meaning the shift likely has 12-15 months left. Separately, several Hong Kong offices are negotiating co-investment rights with U.S. venture managers, a structural change that could pull another $8-12B from traditional alternatives. MCM Partners' new family office platform, announced this week under former UBS and Pictet banker Christophe Page, positions explicitly for this rotation by offering direct equity access and co-GP structures.
Jurisdictional diversification is now standard conversation in private banking circles, with family offices viewing multi-country portfolio construction as risk mitigation rather than complexity. The Addepar tracker will update quarterly, giving public insight into allocation shifts that previously required prime brokerage relationships to observe.