Real estate debt fundraising hits new peak in H1 – exclusive

Closed-ended private real estate debt funds raised $18.95 billion in the first half of 2016, according to figures from PDI Research & Analytics.

This means the record fundraising year of 2013 is under threat, when $36.65 billion was raised in the year as a whole. By last year, the annual total had fallen to less than $21 billion.

Even more notable perhaps than the value of fundraising in the first half was the number of funds achieving closes. The previous record in this context was also seen in 2013, when there were 46 individual fund closings during the year. But, in the first half of 2016 alone, there were 37 closings.

Around half of the closings (18) were for North America-focused funds, with the largest such fundraising being the $1.55 billion raised by AllianceBernstein’s Commercial Real Estate Debt Fund II.

In all, North America-focused funds raised almost $8.2 billion during the first half, compared with $3.7 billion raised by 15 Western Europe-focused funds.

The largest fundraising of all in the first half was the $5.9 billion collected by Lone Star’s Real Estate Fund V, which has a global mandate.

As reported earlier this week, private debt funds as a whole raised $46.8 billion in the first half of this year. This reflected strong activity in the second quarter when $31.4 billion was raised, compared with $15.4 billion in the first quarter.