DACH institutions hold 32.3% of portfolios in alternatives

Institutional investors in Germany, Austria and Switzerland hold 32.3% of their portfolios in alternatives on average, up from 30.3% a year earlier, according to the 2026 BAI Investor Survey.

Weighted by assets, the alternatives share is 33.7%, barely above the simple average, which BAI reads as a sign that regulation and strategic orientation rather than size set allocation. BAI surveyed 105 institutional investors with combined assets of about EUR 2.9 trillion in July and August 2026; Opalesque reported the results on Oct. 21. Pensions make up 34.3% of respondents, insurers 24.8% and single family offices 13.3%; 89.5% are based in Germany.

For a family office building an alternatives sleeve, the survey's level scale shows breadth moves with allocation size and is a staffing question as much as a mandate one. Investors placing themselves at level 3 on BAI's six-point scale hold 3.4 alternative asset classes and an 11.8% alternatives share; those at level 6 hold 5.9 asset classes and 36.7%. The median respondent is invested in five.

Infrastructure equity is the most widely held class at 84% of investors, followed by corporate private equity at 82%, real estate equity at 76% and corporate private debt at 71%. Real estate equity remains the largest single allocation at 8.8% of the total portfolio, down from 9.3%, while corporate private equity rose to 7.3% from 6.1%. BAI's conclusion is that investors are adding to positions they already hold rather than opening new asset classes.

BAI reports the first marked rise in years in the share of investors using hedge funds and liquid alternatives. The investor base also reports more experience: 72% describe their alternatives teams as expert or near-expert, an all-time high for the survey, and no respondent rated itself a beginner for the first time since the survey began in 2013.