Private equity real estate funds raised more than $60 billion during 2008 – down almost a third from the record-breaking totals of 2007.
According to proprietary data from PERE magazine, value-added and opportunistic property funds closed on $60.5 billion of equity commitments in 2008, compared to $86.8 billion in 2007 and $59.3 billion in 2006.
Just under a third of the capital raised during 2008, or 30 percent, was targeting the Asia region, compared to 25 percent of vehicles focusing on Europe, 23 percent concentrating on North America and 22 percent targeting a global strategy.
In total 81 funds held hard closes in 2008, three-quarters of which were in the first six months of the year.
Property funds targeting North America and Asia were the most popular geographic strategy in 2008, with 27 and 23 vehicles securing $13.5 billion and $18.1 billion in hard commitments respectively in the past year.
Eighteen European-focused funds held hard closes during 2008, with commitments totalling $14.6 billion. Real estate funds of funds closed on $561 million in commitments in 2008.
Some of the largest funds to close in 2008 included MGPA’s $3.9 billion MGPA Asia Fund III, LaSalle Investment Management’s $3.2 billion Asia Opportunity Fund III and Lehman Brother’s Real Estate Partners III fund, which closed on $3.2 billion just before the bank’s bankruptcy in September.
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