Brookfield Asset Management is nearing a final close on its largest real estate fundraise yet. The New York-based manager’s opportunistic Strategic Real Estate Partners V fund has raised $16 billion from institutional investors, and a further $2 billion is expected to come from private wealth investors and regional sidecars in the coming months, PERE understands. This is the biggest real estate fundraise since Blackstone Real Estate Partners X was closed in 2023, for which US manager Blackstone collected $30.4 billion in capital commitments. Brookfield's success comes as difficult times persist for fund managers. The latest PERE fundraising report revealed total capital commitments to private real estate funds declined for the third consecutive year, reaching $131 billion in 2024 – a 50 percent drop from the $256 billion raised in 2021. This episode delves into the details of Brookfield’s global fundraise. Listen as host Lucy Scott, PEI Group real estate editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse and PERE EMEA editor Charlotte D’Souza discuss the significance of the fundraise and what it tells us about investor sentiment today. Also hear from Lowell Baron, president and chief investment officer of Brookfield’s real estate group, who shares insights on the markets that the firm is eyeing at a time of continued macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty. READ: The latest PERE fundraising report

After a six-month search, Norges Bank Investment Management has found its next global real estate chief: Alex Knapp, who joins after 17 years at Houston-based manager Hines, where he was chief investment officer for Europe. Starting next month, Knapp will take the helm of NBIM’s massive $70 billion global listed and unlisted real estate portfolio, managed on behalf of Norway’s $1.7 trillion sovereign wealth fund. But his duties in leading the manager’s property business will look a bit different from those of his predecessors – including the fact that Knapp will remain based in London, rather than Oslo. This episode spotlights the details of Knapp’s appointment and what it suggests about NBIM’s evolving investment strategy in the real estate sector. Listen as host Lucy Scott, PEI Group real estate editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse, PERE editor Evelyn Lee and PERE senior reporter Harrison Connery break it all down, with a guest appearance from Serene Hamzawi, managing partner at executive search firm Sousou Partners. Read also: Norway’s sovereign wealth fund appoints Knapp as global real estate head

On the heels of PERE's exclusive report last week on New York-based manager StepStone Group raising the private real estate sector's largest-ever secondaries fund, we spotlight the massive capital haul and the emergence of real estate secondaries more broadly as a major fundraising theme in a time of market dislocation. Indeed, StepStone is not the only private real estate manager eyeing big opportunities in the once-nascent strategy. Its $4.5 billion fundraise for StepStone Real Estate Partners V bested a previous record set less than a year ago by Goldman Sachs Asset Management's Vintage Real Estate Partners III. Meanwhile, Brookfield is preparing to launch its second real estate secondaries vehicle after closing its first on $1.3 billion in commitments last August, and Neuberger Berman closed a $1 billion vehicle of its own in February. What is driving all of this momentum? A "perfect storm" of factors, including high interest rates, illiquidity and dislocation in capital markets, persistent inflation and, most recently, tariff disruption. Listen as host Greg Dool, PEI Group real estate editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse and PERE editor Evelyn Lee break it all down, with guest appearances from Secondaries Investor editor Madeleine Farman and Achal Gandhi, chief investment officer for indirect strategies at CBRE Investment Management.

As real estate investors scramble to size up the effects of tariffs on global markets, some of the earliest impacts are already emerging in the commercial mortgage-backed securities market. US manager Pretium Partners is reportedly pumping the brakes on a $778.5 million single-family residential securitization it had planned to price on April 24, while a report this week from ratings agency Scope Ratings suggests that tariffs could threaten a significant recovery in European CMBS issuance since the start of the year. On a new episode of The PERE Podcast, Lucy Scott is joined by Daniel Cunningham and Samantha Rowan – editors of Real Estate Capital Europe and PERE Credit, respectively – to break down the latest CMBS headlines and explore what it all means for borrowers and real estate debt investors going forward. Also sharing his perspective on the outlook is Benjamin Bouchet, a senior director at Scope Ratings and the author of its latest research report.

A long-awaited recovery in private real estate fundraising finally arrived in the first three months of 2025, with PERE’s latest report showing a year-on-year increase in capital allocations to the asset class for the first time since 2022. Now, as an oncoming trade war and inflationary pressure cloud the industry’s outlook, the question becomes: Will the recovery last? In this episode, PERE editors Jonathan Brasse, Charlotte D’Souza, Greg Dool and Evelyn Lee explore the biggest takeaways from PERE’s fundraising report – including the close of Blackstone’s largest-ever European vehicle – and break down the biggest factors that will impact allocations to the asset class going forward. Also sharing their perspectives on the real estate fundraising environment are Geoffrey Regnery, senior managing director at Chicago-based manager Harrison Street, and Nancy Lashine, founder and managing partner of capital advisory firm Park Madison Partners.

Property investors gained some relief on Wednesday when US president Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on his administration’s sweeping “Liberation Day” tariff hikes, but the outlook for global real estate markets remains anything but certain. As the prospect of a US-China trade war looms, private real estate managers and investors have been forced to reassess short-term business while adapting their longer-term strategies to a changing risk environment. But in times of volatility, there are also opportunities. On this episode, Greg Dool sits down with Jonathan Brasse, Evelyn Lee and Samantha Rowan to break down how market participants have responded to an unpredictable few weeks and what it all means for investment in the property sector moving forward.

Retail’s real estate resurgence is in the spotlight again as a pair of massive private-equity-backed deals target neighborhood shopping centers across the US. On the heels of Blackstone’s $4 billion take-private deal involving 93 grocery-anchored strip malls, fellow investment giants Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Ares Management are getting in on the action as well. As PERE reported last week, Goldman and Ares provided equity backing for Atlanta-based RCG Ventures’ $1.8 billion acquisition of a 100-asset shopping center portfolio from listed real estate investment trust Global Net Lease. Taken together, the two deals represent the transfer of nearly $6 billion-worth of US retail properties from publicly traded REITs to private investment vehicles, and they signify a major comeback for a property sector that had been largely exiled from institutional portfolios. On this episode, PERE Americas editor Greg Dool is joined by PERE Credit editor Samantha Rowan and PERE Deals editor Guelda Voien to explore the numerous layers to the RCG, Ares and Goldman deal and shine a light on retail’s renaissance more broadly.

Against a backdrop of existential challenges to the decarbonization agenda in both the US and Europe, the 10th episode of The PERE Podcast examines whether the real estate industry is, as a consequence, shying away from its sustainability commitments. Listen as Lucy Scott, deputy editor of Real Estate Capital Europe; Randy Plavajka, deputy editor of PERE Credit; and Guelda Voien, editor of PERE Deals, break down how market forces are working to overcome an era of ESG backlash. In conjunction with PERE Credit's in-depth look this week at the latest issuance data for C-PACE – a form of finance for decarbonization upgrades in the US that is rapidly evolving – we ask whether this is likely to change in the current political climate. We then turn to Europe to discuss whether changes to key sustainability regulations are tempering ambitions to future-proof assets and mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis. Also read: Decarbonisation remains critical despite ESG backlash, say managers Real estate ESG professionals feel lost and burned out Real estate's 'mind blowing' climate financing need and other Cop29 takeaways

Achieving fundraising targets and substantially growing capital commitments from one vehicle to the next have become rare feats for private real estate managers, especially those lacking lengthy track records to fall back on. So when an emerging manager not only outraises its initial target by over 40 percent, but also quadruples the size of its predecessor vehicle, it is well worth a closer look. The latest episode of The PERE Podcast does just that, shining a light on PERE's exclusive report about Connecticut-based manager Jadian Capital lining up over $2 billion for its second opportunistic real estate fund – as PERE exclusively reported Friday – more than triple the size of the manager's inaugural vehicle, which it closed on $650 million in 2020. Listen as PERE senior reporter Harrison Connery breaks down Jadian's massive fundraise in conversation with PEI real estate group editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse and PERE Americas editor Greg Dool, including insights from Jadian founder Jarrett Cohen on the manager's unique deployment strategy and why it resonated with institutional investors. Also read: "Jadian Capital lines up $2bn for second fund, 40% above target"

The annual MIPIM conference in Cannes is an important barometer of sentiment for the global real estate market. This year, seven of PERE’s journalists held a combined 100 meetings with leading managers in the real estate industry, spanning both the equity and debt markets. This access to a wide concentration of viewpoints provided the team with insight into how industry stakeholders are really thinking about capital raising and debt availability, as well as their strategies for survival in a climate of continued political and economic volatility. So, what did this year’s MIPIM tell us about the market that we didn’t already know? Listen as Lucy Scott, deputy editor of Real Estate Capital Europe, compares notes with PERE EMEA editor Charlotte D’Souza, PERE Credit editor Samantha Rowan and REC Europe editor Daniel Cunningham. Also read: PERE Credit: No black swans this time but macro fears temper optimism at MIPIM PERE Deals: MIPIM 2025: Beds, sheds and hand-on assets appeal most

American private equity has been storming into the UK-listed property sector this month with a series of takeover bids. On Monday, KKR and New York-based Stonepeak intensified their pursuit of London-listed healthcare real estate investment trust Assura, with the two managers advancing a £1.6 billion ($2.1 billion; €1.9 billion) cash offer. Meanwhile, Blackstone and Sixth Street sweetened their offer for London-based Warehouse REIT with a £470 million bid that was again rebuffed by the industrial investor. And on Tuesday, US-listed nursing home investor CareTrust REIT struck an $817 million agreement to acquire UK-listed Care REIT. What do these three developments, each of which involve US investors hunting publicly traded UK sector specialists, say about the state of the global real estate investment market? Listen as Jonathan Brasse, Evelyn Lee and Randy Plavajka break it all down on the latest episode of The PERE Podcast.

On the heels of Real Estate Capital’s deep-dive analysis of the emergence of back leverage in European property markets, a new episode of The PERE Podcast looks at how this form of finance will reshape the way real estate debt funds provide loans on the continent. A common feature of the US market for some years, the increasing use of back leverage by banks and alternative lenders in Europe is not merely a trend, “but a structural shift in how commercial real estate debt is conceived and executed,” according Jessica Qureshi, an associate at Knight Frank Capital Advisory and author of a February research report on the topic. How, exactly, does back leverage work, and what does its increased adoption mean for global real estate debt markets? Listen in as Real Estate Capital editor Dan Cunningham, PERE Credit editor Samantha Rowan and PERE Credit deputy editor Randy Plavajka break it all down.

Apollo Global Management’s agreement to acquire Utah-based Bridge Investment Group, announced earlier this week, is set to create a $110 billion combined real estate platform, growing Apollo’s AUM in the sector by 40 percent. This is a step change for the manager, helping it to scale its equity business – which focusses on residential and logistics – to its existing and sizeable credit business. The firm now has a suite of real estate capital solutions – but in today’s real estate equity and credit markets, why is this important? In this episode, Greg Dool, PERE’s America’s editor; Sam Rowan, editor of PERE Credit; and Dan Cunningham, editor of Real Estate Capital Europe, take a look at the deal and explore why managers are seeking not just scale, but breadth of offering.

Investment manager Barings’ agreement to acquire value-add specialist Artemis Real Estate Partners creates a combined $60 billion real estate behemoth that is well-suited to reap the benefits of a US market recovery. It also represents a major endorsement of Artemis, one of the sector’s largest women-founded firms, led by industry trailblazer and co-CEO Deborah Harmon. On this episode, PEI Group real estate editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse and PERE EMEA editor Charlotte D’Souza break down the deal, how Barings and Artemis fit together and what it all means for private real estate’s road ahead.

New York offices are having a moment. As the ink dries on a pair of billion-dollar refinancing deals at 3 Bryant Park and the MetLife Building, the city's office sector may soon receive its most momentous vote of confidence yet, with bellwether investor Blackstone reportedly in talks to acquire a major stake in the 50-story tower at 1345 Sixth Avenue. All of this leads to a central question: Is this once-eulogized market finally getting its groove back? Listen in as PEI Group real estate editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse chats with PERE Credit editor Samantha Rowan and PERE Deals editor Guelda Voien about a pivotal moment for the market and what it means for institutional investment in the sector going forward. To subscribe to the podcast, search for The PERE Podcast on your podcast platform of choice, or click here.

A number of new or emerging managers are attempting to grab market share as the next private real estate capital market cycle takes form. In this episode, PERE editor Evelyn Lee and Jonathan Brasse, editor-in-chief of the real estate for PEI Group, discuss firms on the fast track to industry prominence, and what their challenges tell us about the sorts of organizations jostling for position in the years ahead. The discussion is a meditation on PERE’s latest cover story, titled Next Contenders 2025: Asset managers ramping up in real estate. The episode also includes Lee’s interview with Phill Solomond, head of real estate at Stonepeak, one of the six firms featured in the cover story. The wide-ranging conversation covers everything from how Stonepeak's real estate and infrastructure teams work together on deals, the firm’s key achievements to date as a first-time real estate manager, and the investment opportunities Solomond is seeing in the new market cycle.

New York-based private equity giant KKR has reorganized its real estate and infrastructure businesses under a unified real assets platform with a combined $137 billion of assets under management. In this inaugural episode of The PERE Podcast, editor-in-chief of real estate for PEI Group Jonathan Brasse, PERE editor Evelyn Lee and PEI Group’s infrastructure editor-in-chief Bruno Alves dig into the details of the new business and reflect on the context of the DeepSeek AI revelations and their impacts on digital real assets. To subscribe to the podcast, search for The PERE Podcast on your podcast platform of choice, or click here. To learn more about the KKR merger, read our piece KKR makes real estate, infrastructure leadership changes.

The PERE podcast is a weekly discussion between members of our senior editorial team providing you with analysis-led commentary about the biggest events in private real estate capital markets around the world. Our discussion spans formation, strategy and deployment and draws from the ongoing coverage of PERE, PERE Credit and PERE Deals. Listen at www.perenews.com/podcast or subscribe wherever you like to listen.