Presenting the world’s largest private real estate firms
It would surprise few to learn how private real estate capital raising and deployment levels were adversely impacted by the global coronavirus pandemic. In this year’s PERE 100 ranking, the aggregate fundraising total was $510.9 billion, and at just 3.3 percent more than last year, that haul constituted the slowest growth for the ranking since its inception.
A conspicuous absence of mega-fund closes, alongside covid-conditions, saw some of the usually prolific top 10 ranked managers see their five-year totals meaningfully reduce and private real estate’s leading cohort of managers net deployed far less too. Investment by the PERE 100 in the year was $144 billion, down some 34 percent on 2019 levels, as per numbers from transactions data provider Real Capital Analytics.
Nonetheless, these muted activity levels have little to do with the PERE 100’s performance, which by most visible accounts, was still stellar. Some managers, notably Blackstone, Brookfield, Starwood and KKR, continued to generate target-hitting returns.
Consistency like this, coupled with a globally successful vaccination effort, should see the PERE 100’s growth – and deployment activity – resume a trajectory that feels today like it has been nudged by the coronavirus but certainly has not been knocked off course.
For more deep-dive analysis on this year’s largest private real estate firms, including the full PERE 100 ranking and methodology, click the stories in the sidebar.