PERE 50: The biggest ever

At $271.1 billion, more capital was collected for this year's marquee ranking of private equity real estate firms than any time in its history.

The notion that investors from all over the globe are looking to gain exposure to real estate plays out in PERE’s annual private equity real estate capital raising ranking – the PERE 50.

In this year’s iteration of the ranking, which tracks direct investment capital raised for dedicated private equity real estate funds over a rolling five-year period, more capital has been collected by these 50 investment managers than in any previous ranking.

This year, the top 50 institutions raised an aggregate $271.1 billion between 1 January 2011 and 1 April 2016, a boost of 21 percent from the prior year.

To make it into the top 50 a firm needed to break the $2 billion barrier – a considerable uptick on last year’s $1.785 billion, and far more than the $1.3 billion required in 2014.

And while it was clear that fundraising has improved between this year’s ranking and the last overall, it is especially true among the larger institutions. The top ten firms this year took a larger chunk of the aggregate capital among the top 50 firms, accounting for 55 percent.

The Blackstone Group has led all firms again, this time around representing 36 percent of the top ten capital raised and 20 percent of the overall 50.

The top ten funds within this year’s ranking, meanwhile, reflected an aggregate $78.2 billion. The biggest fund was Blackstone’s Blackstone Real Estate Partners VIII, which smashed fundraising records as the largest private real estate fund ever raised, amassing a total of $15.8 billion, last year.

To access analysis of the ranking in full, click here.