StepStone's record fundraise and a 'perfect storm' for secondaries
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.
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25:29
Tariff policies disrupt the CMBS market. Does it bode ill for real estate borrowers?
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.
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16:05
Real estate stages a fundraising comeback. Will it last?
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, partner at Chicago-based manager Harrison Street, and Nancy Lashine, founder and managing partner of capital advisory firm Park Madison Partners.
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19:40
‘To pause or not’: Tariffs force the private real estate sector to decide
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.
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18:35
Why Ares, Goldman and Blackstone are charging back into retail real estate
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.
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.
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