One more week to vote in the 2021 PERE Global Awards!

We are a week away from the polls closing for the 2021 PERE Global Awards and in many of our key global categories, there is still everything to play for.

With almost 5,000 votes cast so far, there is still plenty of scope to swing close races in favor of – or against – the managers, investors and advisers that have shaped the private equity real estate industry in the past 12 months. Although in some races, including Global Industry Figure of the Year and Global Capital Raise of the Year, there are formidable gaps between the lead contenders and the runners-up, 10 of the 15 global categories are currently being decided by fewer than 100 votes.

The last week of voting is crucial in determining the winners in the most hotly contested matchups. This year, some of the categories currently up for grabs are:

Global Retail Investor of the Year – Separated by less than a percentage point, or just six votes, Brookfield Asset Management and Blackstone are in a Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton type of back-and-forth. The two heavyweights may also need to watch their backs, with GIC only 39 votes behind pole position and within five percentage points of both firms.

Global Office Investor of the Year – The current frontrunner, Blackstone, holds a slim lead over Brookfield, Oxford Properties and Allianz Real Estate. With fewer than 100 votes between first and last, this race is about as hard to call as a typical Kentucky Derby.

Global Debt Firm of the Year – Much like many recent campaigns in English football’s Premier League, KKR and LaSalle Investment Management have pulled away as the proverbial Manchester City and Liverpool in a crowded field. Separated by almost two percentage points, or only 17 votes, the votes that come in the final week could be crucial for either firm to take home the title.

Global Indirect Firm of the Year – Madison International Realty currently holds only a 24-vote lead over second-placed CBRE Investment Management, with BentallGreenOak nipping at the heels of both. In fact, exactly eight percentage points, 74 votes, separate first and third in this clash of the titans.

Global ESG Firm of the Year – Here is another three-horse race with fewer than 10 percentage points between first and third place. The razor-thin margins between NREP, Hines and BGO vying for the top spot are unsurprising, given that the category represents such a hot-button issue for the industry. Less than 85 votes separate all three, with Hines needing only 25 to catch up with frontrunner NREP.

Some regional races are also extremely tight. Institutional Investor of the Year, ESG Firm of the Year and Capital Advisory Firm of the Year in North America; Industry Figure of the Year, Institutional Investor of the Year and Southern Europe Firm of the Year in Europe; and Japan Firm of the Year in Asia are all categories with 50 votes or fewer separating the four finalists. In other words, your vote can make a difference in deciding who emerges victorious in our global and regional categories.

To recap our voting guidelines one more time: you may only vote once per category; you may not vote for yourself or your own firm; you are not required to vote in all categories; all votes are confidential; block votes will be disqualified; and personal email addresses, such as those from Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo! accounts, will not be counted.

If you have already voted, thank you so much for taking the time to make your opinions known. But if you have not, make sure to have your say here before time runs out. Remember, voting ends next Friday, January 14 at midnight PST.