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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Correction: A previous version of this episode erroneously cited a transaction between Brookfield and Harrison Street in Q1 2025 for a US residential portfolio. Brookfield purchased a US student housing portfolio in December 2024, according to PERE Deals data, for which the seller is unknown.

This week, PERE revealed that Chicago-based alternatives specialist Harrison Street held a first close for its 10th flagship US real estate fund, Harrison Street Real Estate Partners X, with $1 billion in commitments – after just one month on the road.

The fundraise comes as economic and geopolitical uncertainty threaten a potential real estate recovery. The speed of the first close, which brings Harrison Street a third of the way to its $3 billion hard-cap for HSREP X, is also notable when considering the average time most real estate funds spend in the market has stretched to 23 months, according to PERE’s latest fundraising report.

In this episode, Lucy Scott, Greg Dool and PERE senior reporter Harrison Connery discuss why the fund – launched in April, per SEC filings – has attracted so much attention. We also hear from David Hodes, founder and co-managing partner of advisory boutique Hodes Weill & Associates, who tells PEI Group's real estate editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse why Harrison Street's vision for its 10th US vehicle was able to tempt institutional investors, both old and new, to back it.

This episode is sponsored by LaSalle Debt Investors and Kayne Anderson

In the wake of rising rates and falling transaction volumes, US real estate debt markets are undergoing a significant transformation. Traditional lenders – especially regional banks – have stepped back, opening space for private credit providers to play a larger role.

As a looming wave of loan maturities approaches, participants are preparing for both stress and opportunity. They're deploying capital selectively, often in the form of rescue financing, while building platforms that can flex across cycles. What emerges isn’t a market in freefall or overdrive, but a reset where discipline and structure matter more than ever.

Joining us in this episode is David Selznick, chief investment officer of Kayne Anderson’s real estate group, and Craig Oram, president and fund manager at LaSalle Debt Investors. They share how their firms are adapting by focusing on refinancings, leaning into necessity-based assets like multifamily and industrial, and underwriting with more scrutiny than ever before.

How should investors think about private real estate portfolio construction amid today’s highly uncertain macroeconomic volatility? Brian Klinksiek, head of research and strategy at LaSalle Investment Management, has a compelling answer.

The Chicago-headquartered manager's latest research note – The Trade War, Relatively Speaking: Tariffs and Real Estate Fair Value – is the second of two papers looking at the subject of tariffs. It is a guide of key ideas for real estate investors – ideas that will hold true at a time when the future “steady state” of trade policy remains unknowable.

In this episode, Klinksiek explains LaSalle's "theory of relativities" in conversation with Jonathan Brasse, PEI’s real estate editor-in-chief. This theory prioritizes diversification, a permanent allocation to private real estate credit, and being focused on aspects of the market that are not likely to change, no matter what comes next.

Did you miss a rare opportunity to hear Brookfield Asset Management chief executive Bruce Flatt speak on stage at the PERE Network Europe Forum 2025 this week? Fear not.

The team behind The PERE Podcast is stepping aside from our usual format to showcase the entire unabridged conversation between Flatt and PEI’s real estate editor-in-chief, Jonathan Brasse.

In this wide-ranging interview, Flatt explains how to make money in today’s real estate environment, the primary function of unlisted property in institutional portfolios, liability matching with insurance money, and harnessing retail and private wealth investors’ growing appetite for private markets. Flatt also reflects on the ups and downs of working with corporate giants like Nvidia and Microsoft as well as his view on AI advances and geopolitical volatility.

The latest PERE 100 and 200 rankings of private real estate’s top fundraisers, out this week, reflects a changed reality for managers in an increasingly competitive capital-formation environment.

For one thing, lengthier fundraising timelines – and ever-larger fundraising targets – contributed to an unprecedented level of year-to-year volatility throughout the list and even within the top 10. And a sustained wave of M&A activity involving managers up and down the ranking is set to continue shaking things up in the years ahead.

On this episode of The PERE Podcast, we break down the main takeaways from this year’s ranking and share excerpts of interviews with John Carrafiell, co-chief executive of third-ranked PERE 100 manager BGO, and Robert-Jan Foortse, head of European property at pension investor APG, for insight on how top managers and their institutional investor clients are operating in a shifting fundraising environment.

In this episode, we break down the key takeaways from the PERE Network Europe Forum 2025. Some 200 market participants representing private real estate’s top institutional investors, asset managers, lenders and advisers came together at the two-day event in London last week to trade insights and strategies amid rapidly changing global property markets, and we have all the details.

Listen as host Lucy Scott sits with PEI’s real estate editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse and Real Estate Capital Europe editor Daniel Cunningham to explore the conference’s biggest themes, including Europe’s position as a beneficiary of shifting capital flows, where managers are finding opportunities in market volatility and the types of strategies that are resonating most with institutional investors.

The wide-ranging conversation features mentions of the perspectives shared by conference speakers including Brookfield chief executive Bruce Flatt, Blackstone managing director David Gorleku, Patron Capital partner Henry Randolph, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan senior managing director Jenny Hammarlund and many more.

Enjoy the dispatch, and catch last week’s episode featuring Flatt’s fully unabridged keynote talk here.

This episode is sponsored by Bouwinvest Real Estate Investors

The Dutch residential market has remained resilient despite economic turbulence and rising interest rates and is now emerging as a prime destination for international investors.

In this episode, Paul van Stiphout of Bouwinvest Real Estate Investors and Jorrit Arissen of Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management unpack the forces driving the market’s strength – from a deep-rooted rental culture and robust occupancy levels to increasing demand for senior and student housing.

With the Netherlands facing a housing shortfall, Van Stiphout and Arissen discuss how foreign capital will be essential to bridge the gap. They also explore how demographic trends and public funding cuts are creating opportunities in niche sectors, such as senior living, which saw investment jump to €724 million in 2024.

The fraught macroeconomic climate and its impact on property markets has been a regular topic of The PERE Podcast as investors allocate capital in a deglobalizing world. This week the spotlight is on geopolitics, as escalation in the Middle East and rising defense budgets in Europe portend significant consequences for global property markets.

On this week’s episode, host Greg Dool sits down with PEI’s real estate editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse, PERE Deals reporter Sarah Marx and Real Estate Capital Europe deputy editor Lucy Scott for a look at how private real estate investors and managers are adapting. We also feature parts of an exclusive interview with François Trausch, chief executive of PIMCO Prime Real Estate, who shares context around the Newport Beach, California-based asset manager's latest white paper Bend, Not Break: Investing in Real Estate Amid Economic Uncertainty.

What might rising tension mean for inbound investment in the Middle East? Will increased spending on defense and infrastructure, as pledged by NATO members this week, create opportunities for fund managers? Tune in for what we are hearing this week from market participants as the situation unfolds.

Listen above and tune in next week for the full interview with Trausch.

Real estate is a people business, and this month, PERE is highlighting those that have made their mark on the asset class. On this episode, we take a deep dive into PERE’s second-ever Most Influential list, ranking the individuals who've made the biggest impact on private real estate over the 10-year period since we last compiled such a list in 2015.

Numerous forces have reshaped the industry during the intervening decade – a global pandemic, a sector reshuffling, the proliferation of debt funds and the emergence of numerous new sources of capital – and the ranking reflects each of these trends in different ways.

Listen as host Greg Dool sits down with PEI Group’s real estate editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse, PERE editor Evelyn Lee and PERE Credit editor Samantha Rowan for a breakdown of the key takeaways, as well as an inside look at the process behind the list and what it says about real estate’s evolution as an asset class.

Enjoy the rest of our PERE 20th anniversary content here.

Is “defense” the next major theme in private real estate? Are sector-based investment strategies outdated in the current market cycle? How can allocators and their asset managers act with conviction in an era of deglobalization, trade tension, inflation, recession risks and interest rate volatility?

In this episode, PEI real estate editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse speaks with François Trausch, chief executive and CIO of PIMCO Prime Real Estate, to discuss these questions and more in an exclusive breakdown of the Newport Beach, California-based manager’s latest annual real estate market outlook.

Listen as Brasse and Trausch discuss real estate’s evolving place in investors’ portfolios, focusing on resiliency across property sectors, why traditional investment strategies need to be reconsidered at a time of “structural” uncertainty, and much more.

For more, read our coverage of PIMCO’s latest real estate outlook and tune into last week’s episode.

Madison Realty Capital, one of the first real estate private credit funds, has been originating a series of loans that are changing city skylines.

The most recent of these were in New York. In mid-May, the company funded a $720 million loan to finance the conversion of the former Pfizer headquarters into a 1,600-unit apartment complex. And earlier this month, a joint venture between Madison Realty and a Kushner Companies joint venture funded a $525 million construction loan for the development of Court LIC, a planned 55-story condo in New York's Long Island City submarket.

But loans like these are only a part of Madison Realty Capital’s activity.

In this episode, Josh Zegen, co-founder of the New York-based company, discusses the different ways Madison Realty Capital participates in commercial real estate deals, how that has expanded since its inception in 2004, and where the firm is allocating capital from its latest real estate private equity fund.

On its face, PERE’s just-released first-half fundraising report brings welcome news to the private real estate sector, revealing that capital commitments to the asset class jumped 16 percent from H1 2024. After a multi-year slowdown, is fundraising ramping up again? Or is there more to the story?

In this episode, join host Greg Dool, PERE editor Evelyn Lee and PERE Asia-Pacific reporter Christie Ou as we dive into the results – including a pair of Blackstone mega-funds and bright spots for both data centers and Asia-focused vehicles – and what they suggest about investors’ evolving view of the asset class.

Listen for updates on the managers that closed on the largest capital hauls during the first half of 2025, the investors that backed them, headwinds for industrial vehicles and the rise of specialist funds targeting other emergent sectors. The team looks ahead at the next group of funds headed for a final close in the coming months, including massive vehicles being raised by Brookfield and Starwood Capital Group, among others.

Read the full H1 fundraising report here.

This week PERE published its latest investor report, with figures for the first half of 2025 providing key insights into the private equity real estate investor environment.

In this episode, we discuss the standout finding: Investor allocations to private equity real estate pulled back overall during the period, with most investor types lowering their exposures to the asset class. Meanwhile, some of the most active known investors in real estate funds dropped out of the rankings completely and a handful of the biggest real estate managers only scored one investor check each.

Listen as Charlotte D'Souza and Samantha Rowan sit down with Lucy Scott to breakdown the report, discussing what has changed in the investor universe in these past six months, why it has changed and whether the figures tell managers anything about what is to come for fundraising in the coming months.

Starwood Property Trust’s $2.2 billion purchase of Fundamental Income Properties – a 467-asset, US sale-leaseback platform established by Brookfield five years ago – is just the latest example of real estate managers’ insatiable appetite for net-lease strategies.

Given the promise of long-term, resilient and predictable income typically associated with these portfolios, it is not difficult to see why. But how does momentum for net-lease fit into the bigger picture as private real estate market participants adapt to a changing market?

This episode dives into that very question, bringing together PERE Deals editor Guelda Voien, PERE Credit editor Samantha Rowan, PEI real estate editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse and host Greg Dool to analyze not only this latest blockbuster deal, but what it suggests about the types of defensive strategies investors and their asset managers are embracing in an uncertain environment.

Also joining the program is Josh Shandell, a senior vice-president at Brookfield who played a key role in Fundamental Income Properties’ formation and its sale to Starwood, to share the mega-manager’s view on net-lease investments – and why this $2.2 billion exit is by no means the last we will hear from Brookfield in the space.

Read more about Starwood’s push into the sector in PERE Deals (registration required).

MF1, a joint venture between Berkshire Residential Investments and Limekiln Real Estate, closed its third CLO this year and 21st overall securitization as of May 31, 2025. The transaction comes as CRE CLO issuance is rebounding. The first half of 2025 saw almost five times the issuance rate as the same period of 2024, according to data from the CRE Finance Council, a New York-based trade group.

Since Houston-based developer-turned-investment manager Hines started raising and deploying third-party capital, the majority has come from institutional sources. That is changing rapidly. Indeed, according to the firm’s global chief investment officer, David Steinbach, as much as 50 percent of its capital is expected to come via private wealth channels within five years.

Steinbach makes this bold prediction in an interview with PERE’s editor-in-chief, Jonathan Brasse, captured for this special episode of The PERE Podcast.

He spoke to PERE just days before Hines announced the hiring of Hao Zhan, most recently head of Asia for the Carlyle Group’s Global Wealth division, as head of Asia for its own Private Wealth Solutions business, and just days after a regulatory filing revealed that its public, non-traded real estate investment trust, Hines Global Income Trust, had passed the $5 billion mark in terms of net asset value.

Steinbach sees the Trust remaining an important offering for private wealth investors, but he also explores how products for this increasingly coveted cohort of investors are only proliferating. That will bring its challenges, Steinbach explains in this 10-minute episode, but also huge opportunities for vehicle innovation for firms like Hines and others.

Launching a real estate fund management business in a historic market downturn is bold. Doing so as a woman in the Asia-Pacific region, where female-founded and private real estate managers remain exceedingly rare, is even bolder.

“I’ve found that, especially in Asia, women tend to basically step back from the table,” says Angel Li, a former real estate executive at CLSA and Macquarie who became founding partner in her own management business, Avatar Capital Partners.

Li joined The PERE Podcast for an in-depth interview fresh off the closing of Avatar's debut property fund targeting Japanese multifamily assets. But much of the candid discussion with PEI real estate editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse centered on Li’s experience as a female founder, including overcoming self-doubt and trying to support other future women leaders.

“I’m still having a lot of moments of doubt as a female founder, questioning [whether] I’m fast enough, smart enough,” Li says. “I would say it’s been an emotional marathon, a lot of ups and downs."

Listen as Li describes Avatar’s inaugural fundraising journey, including the critical validation she felt in the fund’s first close and the ultimate triumph when the vehicle saw a final close last month, a year after launch, above-target and with the backing of investors including The Townsend Group and its long-term client National Pension Service of Korea

“At that moment it felt like stepping onto more solid ground, with everything becoming very real,” she says. “It wasn’t just about validation, it was about realization. I might be a soft, small, tepid Asian girl, right? But at that moment I felt like I’m grounded and unstoppable.”

Li’s advice to other female founders: Be yourself, embrace your emotions, celebrate others’ successes, and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

“Asking for help, I think isn’t a weakness, but a sign of self-awareness,” she says. “It shows you recognize what you don’t know and that you're committed to growth through learning and collaboration.”

Also read:

• Former CLSA executives raise $105m for NPS-backed debut fund
• Where are the female founders in private real estate?

As a wave of newly imposed US tariffs arrive to test the global economy this week, real estate investors, managers and lenders are left to grapple with the short- and long-term implications for their strategies.

Are tough times ahead for logistics? Is there an upside to rising construction costs? Are interest rate cuts still on the table? How are real estate market participants making sense of it all? A new episode is here to break it down, with perspectives from across the private real estate sector, including from guest Chris Caton, managing director of global strategy and analytics at industrial giant Prologis.

Also joining the episode are PERE Deals editor Guelda Voien and PERE Credit senior reporter Shihao Feng, with fresh insight on how dealmakers are reacting and how ongoing uncertainty is impacting lending markets.

Also read: Exclusive: UCLA survey tracks expected California construction decline

London-based asset managers Legal & General and Federated Hermes announced on Monday that the Federated Hermes Property Unit Trust had merged into the L&G Managed Property Fund, creating a single platform with a value of £4.7 billion ($6.3 billion; €5.3 billion).

In this episode, the editorial team digs into the details of this story, which involves two of the oldest and largest open-ended property funds. Listen as we reflect on what the deal says about the evolution of the country’s pension schemes and their shifting preferences regarding private real estate.

Despite both funds being long-established – the L&G MPF in 1971 and FHPUT in 1967 – a key difference between the two vehicles is the nature of their investor base. The majority of MPF’s investors are defined contribution pension schemes. With DC plans, members’ retirement income is determined by a combination of contributions and investment returns, while FHPUT comprises mostly defined benefit pension schemes, as well as local government pension schemes.

Listen as Charlotte D'Souza and Joe Marsh join Lucy Scott to discuss how changes in the UK pensions landscape have shaped the opportunity. The team also explores how this merger – which is a rare event – was achieved. Plus, we'll hear from Michael Barrie, head of real estate, UK and Europe at L&G, who spoke to PERE soon after the announcement to explain the changing landscape for DB and DC schemes and how L&G has responded to it.

US fund managers have responded optimistically to president Donald Trump’s executive order last week aimed at allowing 401(k) and other defined-contribution retirement plans greater access to alternative investments, including private real estate.

Carlyle Group is “super enthusiastic,” said its chief executive Harvey Schwartz, who also praised the move as “long overdue." Some managers, like Blue Owl Capital and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, have already been working to tap into this market with announcements in recent months of new initiatives aimed at including private assets in retirement plans.

Despite the optimism, questions remain around the potential regulatory framework and guardrails, the overall appetite for private real estate equity and credit, where 401(k) capital might fit into real estate managers’ portfolios, and the types of products that will need to be created to capture it.

This episode seeks to break down the possible answers, with perspectives from Samantha Rowan, editor of PERE Credit, and Bill Myers, Washington, DC correspondent for affiliate title Private Funds CFO. Later in the episode, we also hear from Hannah Schriner, managing principal at consultant Meketa Investment Group and head of the defined contribution practice group, for more on how real estate can fit into 401(k) plans and how fund managers can best position themselves to serve them.

Also read:

• PE Hub: Apollo, Blackstone Carlyle, KKR enthusiastic about 401(k) plan executive order
• Private Funds CFO: In the Loop: Trump’s retail hard launch
• PERE Credit: Principal white paper makes the case for CRE debt

A note from Meketa: The views and information discussed in this podcast are for informational and educational purposes only. They should not be considered, or relied upon, as financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Listeners should consult with their own professional advisors before making any financial decisions. The opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the hosts or affiliated organizations.

Offices are back in the spotlight this week on both sides of the Atlantic, and this episode explores some of the reasons behind the sector’s newfound momentum in both investor interest and lender appetite.

Join host Greg Dool, Real Estate Capital Europe editor Daniel Cunningham and PERE Deals reporter McKenna Leavens as they discuss the latest developments, including Norges Bank Investment Management's acquisition of a Midtown Manhattan tower, a deal announced on Tuesday, as well as surging activity in London, where offices have featured prominently in a hotbed of financing deals in recent days.

The episode also features expert analysis from Oliver Salmon, director of global capital markets at Savills World Research, who sat down with co-host Lucy Scott to discuss the driving factors behind renewed investor confidence in the office sector and what this could mean for non-prime office assets and locations.

This episode is sponsored by Arrow Global

Germany’s property market is facing the highest insolvency rate in Europe. Years of cheap credit and rising prices encouraged aggressive development, but when interest rates jumped, buyers paused, sales collapsed and projects ran out of cash. The result: a wave of bankruptcies across the sector.

However, in this episode, CEO of Arrow Global Germany Bernhard Hansen explains that there’s opportunity within this dislocation. Stalled projects and smaller developments are waiting for investors with the expertise and capital to finish them. With housing demand far outpacing supply, especially in cities like Munich, he believes there is still strong long-term potential.

That potential of course comes with challenges: stricter sustainability rules, tougher financing conditions, and wary buyers mean projects take longer and require deeper due diligence. Yet Hansen is optimistic. International investors and alternative lenders are stepping in, and he says the correction is less of an ending, and more of a recalibration of Germany’s real estate market.

Blackstone is emerging as the victor of a months-long tussle for control of UK-listed investment trust Warehouse REIT – just the latest publicly traded industrial real estate firm to be snatched up by private equity over the past year.

Indeed, private asset managers have been on a public-market tear in the sector, from Brookfield’s pursuit of UK warehouse owner Tritax EuroBox, to Starwood and Sixth Street’s take-private of Asian logistics giant ESR, to last week’s news that Sixth Street is advancing an unsolicited bid to acquire Boston-based Plymouth REIT and its 36 million-square-foot US warehouse portfolio.

This episode spotlights this trend, including a recap from PERE Deals editor Guelda Voien of Blackstone’s on-again, off-again chase for Warehouse REIT, a look at Sixth Street’s emergence in the space, and broader analysis from PEI Group real estate editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse and Principal Asset Management’s head of real estate research and strategy Rich Hill.

This week, The PERE Podcast breaks down the revelation that banking giant Morgan Stanley’s real estate arm has amassed a $900 million fund specifically targeting Japan’s real estate sector. The capital raise is notable not just for its size, which greatly exceeded its target of around $500 million, but for the strategic approach it represents as Morgan Stanley’s first country-specific real estate fund outside the US.

Morgan Stanley is not alone among North American asset managers in its enthusiasm for the Japanese property market. In May, BGO closed a $4.6 billion Asian real estate fund – its largest fund ever – with 65 to 75 percent of the capital earmarked for Japan. In June, Los Angeles’ Ares Management closed a $2.4 billion fund focused entirely on Japanese data centers. These, along with the $4 billion raised for Hong Kong-based PAG’s Secured Capital Real Estate Partners VIII, which will be 70 percent deployed to Japan, were among the eight biggest real estate funds closed anywhere in the world in the first half of 2025.

What is driving all of this capital formation? Listen as host Lucy Scott, PEI real estate editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse and PERE editor Evelyn Lee discuss why international managers are seeking to deploy in the country, what this latest news means in the context of Morgan Stanley’s real estate history, and what it signals to the market about the firm’s evolution as a manager.

In this episode, Patron Capital founder Keith Breslauer says the firm’s sale of a majority stake to Mitsubishi Estate Global Partners should be seen as a springboard for growth rather than an exit.

Breslauer sat down with PERE’s Jonathan Brasse in August following the headline-grabbing sale of the Europe-focused firm to Mitsubishi Estate Global Partners, the investment management business of Japanese property giant Mitsubishi Estate.

Listen to the wide-ranging interview in full, as Breslauer sets out how the business will evolve following that sale. “I didn’t do this to exit. I did this to grow,” he explained.

Find out the rationale and opportunity behind Mitsubishi’s backing, which includes an initial €600 million equity injection, and how Patron will diversify as a result, taking it beyond its 25-year history in opportunistic equity investing.

Among the initiatives discussed is the build-out of a private real estate debt platform, launched in April under the leadership of former CBRE executive Henry Randolph. Breslauer also highlights strong investor appetite for credit strategies but stresses the need to underwrite cautiously in volatile markets.

Among the other topics floated during this episode is a potential collaboration with Europa Capital, another London-based manager acquired by Mitsubishi in 2010, and a willingness to contribute to Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction.

The private real estate market got a boost last week when the US Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark policy rate for the first time in nine months. It is a welcome shift for a property sector that has spent three years grappling with the consequences of higher-for-longer interest rates. But what are the immediate effects of a return to rate-cutting, and how does it alter forecasts for capital deployment and returns going forward?

This episode breaks it all down, with reactions from across the equity and debt sides of the industry. Listen as host Greg Dool chats with PERE Deals editor Guelda Voien and PERE Credit deputy editor Randy Plavajka about the market context for the Fed’s shift and the key indicators for real estate investors in the months ahead.

Later in the episode, we hear from Newmark’s managing director of global research, David Bitner, and head of commercial capital markets research, Joe Biasi, for their take on the news and the extent to which it alters the calculus for dealmaking and fundraising in the rest of 2025 and beyond.

In this episode, the editorial team spotlights rising ambitions in real estate debt following news that QuadReal, the property arm of British Columbia’s public-sector pension scheme, plans to deploy £2.5 billion ($3.3 billion; €2.9 billion) into European real estate credit in the next five years through a newly launched direct lending platform.

By the end of 2029, QuadReal aims to have between 10 and 20 percent of its global real estate debt exposure in the UK and continental Europe, to complement its North American credit platform. It is just the latest example of a North American manager broadening its ambitions to lend in Europe.

Last week, Brookfield wrote its largest European real estate loan deal to date, providing £450 million to refinance two UK retail centers. KKR, meanwhile, plans to deploy a significant piece of the $850 million raised for its latest real estate credit fund to the continent, citing a “very compelling” lending opportunity there, affiliate Real Estate Capital Europe reported in March. Minnesota-based manager Castlelake is currently deploying €1 billion of designated real estate loan capital specifically bound for the Nordic region.

What does this cross-border push suggest about institutional shifts within private real estate going forward? Listen as host Lucy Scott, deputy editor of REC Europe, is joined by Daniel Cunningham, REC Europe’s editor, and Silvia Saccardi, REC Europe's senior reporter, to discuss the trend and dig into the factors driving it. Stay tuned for additional perspective from London-based debt advisory business Art Capital’s Tim Vaughan and AJ Storton, who believe this increasing capital formation and deployment activity is underpinned by the rapid growth of back-leverage lending via US investment banks.

This episode is sponsored by Cain International and Arrow Global

After several years defined by rising rates and pricing uncertainty, Europe’s property market may be at an inflection point. Jay Patel, managing director at Arrow Global, and Arvi Luoma, who heads Cain International’s European investment committee, share perspectives on how capital is rebalancing toward the continent in this special episode.

Patel notes that allocators from the US, Middle East and beyond are looking to Europe in ways they weren’t just a year ago, opening the door for both credit and equity strategies. Luoma, meanwhile, emphasizes that valuations appear to have bottomed and that green shoots are starting to show as financing conditions stabilize.

The two also highlight where opportunities are clearest: Germany’s distressed construction projects, Southern Europe’s structural tourism boom, student housing, and continued undersupply in residential and hospitality. Data centers and logistics remain attractive, while ESG regulation – once seen as a hurdle – is increasingly embedded in business plans, shaping how new assets are built and old ones are repositioned.

Taken together, their outlook is one of cautious optimism. Core capital is beginning to return, early movers are testing distressed opportunities, and Europe’s mix of stability, rule of law and long-term demand drivers are drawing greater global interest.

The release of PERE’s annual Global Investor 100 ranking of private real estate’s top allocators comes with a somber headline for asset managers: For the first time in the ranking’s history, the world’s top 100 property investors saw their total allocation to the asset class decline from the year before.

But that is far from the only intriguing takeaway from this year’s list. On this episode, we take a deep dive into the GI 100 as host Greg Dool sits with PERE’s EMEA editor Charlotte D’Souza to discuss shifts in the ranking among Asia-Pacific, European and North American investors, as well as different investor types, and what they suggest about the ongoing movement of capital in the asset class. We also hear from PERE editor Evelyn Lee about the market context behind these shifts and what participants can expect moving forward.

Later in the episode, PEI Group real estate editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse sits with Dimme Lucassen, managing director and head of the European real estate team at capital advisory firm Evercore, for his view on the findings, the outlook for real estate and the broader relationship between transaction markets and valuations.

PERE and its affiliate Real Estate Capital Europe were on the ground at Expo Real in Munich this week, hosting panel discussions and holding more than a hundred meetings with senior executives from across the private real estate market. So this week, The PERE Podcast brings you an informed dispatch on one of the biggest talking points of the week: Europe’s rising prospects, based on an anticipated rise in defense and infrastructure investment.

When NATO members pledged in June to spend as much as 5 percent of GDP annually on defense and critical infrastructure by 2035, private real estate market participants quickly began assessing the ways such spending could spur demand for real estate. These early insights were captured on prior episodes of The PERE Podcast this summer, which you can listen to here and here.

This week, the topic is gaining momentum again, with managers and investors at Expo Real eager to share their perspectives on European real estate’s potential NATO uplift and the markets and sectors that stand to benefit most. But it remains early days, and these policy drivers could be subject to change. How likely is it that defense-related real estate will form an asset class in its own right? Is the opportunity being overstated? And what types of challenges could come with investing in such a sector?

Listen as PEI real estate editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse, PERE EMEA editor Charlotte D’Souza and Real Estate Capital Europe editor Daniel Cunningham talk to host Lucy Scott about what they heard in the halls of Expo Real this week. Then later in the episode, hear from Kevin Mofid, head of EMEA Industrial and Logistics Research at real estate services firm Savills, who takes listeners through the firm’s own calculations and why it predicts “substantial growth” on the horizon for industrial and logistics strategies.

Blackstone emerged last month as the winner of a year-long takeover battle for UK industrial landlord Warehouse REIT after knocking out rival suitor Tritax Big Box with a £489 million ($656 million; €562 million) bid. But as it turns out, that was not the end of the Blackstone-Tritax saga.

In a surprise twist this week, the rivals became partners when Blackstone announced an agreement to sell a £1 billion UK logistics portfolio to Tritax, just weeks after Tritax bowed out of its pursuit of Warehouse REIT. For an added level of intrigue, the deal reportedly involves both cash and Tritax stock, meaning Blackstone will hold an 8.6 percent stake in Tritax Big Box after the deal.

What should the industry make of this sequence of events, and what does it suggest about US private real estate managers’ ongoing push into the UK-listed property market?

This episode breaks it all down. Listen as host Greg Dool gets the latest from PERE Deals reporter Sarah Marx, who has covered the saga’s every turn, and PEI real estate editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse, who offers his perspective on the affair and how it compares to a similar dalliance between Brookfield Asset Management and UK REIT Segro last year.

Later in the episode, Marx sits down with Matthew Norris, head of real estate securities at London-based manager and REIT investor Gravis Capital, for his take on the story and the growing number of takeover battles between private equity and publicly listed REITs.

In this episode, host McKenna Leavens sits down with Jonathan Brasse, PERE editor-in-chief, and Evelyn Lee, PERE editor, to unpack the optimism circulating at PERE Network’s 20th annual America Forum, held earlier this week in New York City. The flagship event brought together a record-breaking number of industry leaders and investors across the private real estate landscape.

“Palpable optimism” is the way Brasse described the feeling in the air. Listen as he relays the growing confidence among participants that the worst of the capital markets dislocation is over. The podcast reflects on key themes contributing to a positive mood, including the expectation of a rebound in transaction activity and the growing prevalence of core risk-return strategies. Development is also becoming a talking point.

Listeners will also hear from Jesse Hom, chief investment officer of real assets and head of real estate credit at Blue Owl, who joined a panel discussing signs of a strong recovery in the market.

But there were also notable degrees of skepticism, as Lee explains. Despite improving supply-demand dynamics, there are still uncertainties around long-term interest rates, rising inflation and government deficits, leading some to feel the industry is not yet out of the woods.

Read also: PSP, La Caisse explore recalibration of property portfolios