Industry heavyweight Blackstone’s massive $30.4 billion closing in April for Blackstone Real Estate Partners X, the 10th fund in the mega-manager’s real estate fund series, had a disproportionate impact on the overall fundraising data for H1 2023, especially in a first half with a relatively low amount of capital raised and small number of funds closed.
The first half of 2023 saw a total of $72.3 billion raised across 90 funds closed. This was not only the lowest amount of capital raised in H1 since 2013, but also the smallest number of funds closed during H1 2023. By comparison, the number of funds closed in H1 2022 was 198.
Against such a small data set, BREP X represented around 42 percent of the $72.3 billion raised in H1 2023. Moreover, there was a $25.5 billion fundraising gap between BREP X and the second largest-fund to close during the first-half of the year, EQT Exeter’s $4.9 billion EQT Exeter Industrial Value Fund VI.
The heavy weighting of BREP X in the H1 2023 fundraising data also skewed the most popular strategy and target region, respectively, toward opportunistic and multi-regional. Without BREP X in the fundraising totals, value-add and North America would have instead prevailed in both categories.
No other manager is in a position to overtake Blackstone’s record-breaking capital raise for the foreseeable future. PERE data shows that the biggest fund currently in the market is Brookfield Strategic Real Estate Partners V, which has a target of $15 billion, half of the capital raised by BREP X. Meanwhile, Blackstone is currently on the road for three of the top five funds in the market: Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe VII, Blackstone Real Estate Partners Asia III and Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies V. The firm is seeking a total of $27.36 billion across the three vehicles.
Check out our interactive report for a more extensive analysis of H1 2023’s fundraising figures, including the most popular strategies and the largest funds in market.
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