Total real estate assets under management reached €2.8 trillion in 2018, representing an increase of 12.0% from the €2.5 trillion recorded at the end of 2017, according to the Fund Manager Survey 2019, published by ANREV, INREV and NCREIF.

For the first time in the survey’s history, the largest manager breached the €200 billion mark, while all three of the top ranking managers exceeded €140 billion each.

Blackstone has exceeded the €200 billion mark, recording a total real estate AUM of €201.6 billion and maintaining its lead for the third consecutive year. Blackstone total AUM increased by €17.3 billion compared with the previous year.

Brookfield Asset Management and PGIM occupied the second and third positions at €163.8 billion and €147.7 billion, respectively. Nuveen Real Estate was fourth with €108.9 billion and Hines was fifth at €104.4 billion – both robustly above €100 billion, despite being some way behind the top three. The leading European manager was UBS with €83.8 billion, placing it at number eight in the league table.

The 10 largest managers represented 40.2% of the overall AUM for total real estate and seven of the top 10 managers were North American-domiciled players with a global footprint.

”There are some variations across investment strategies worth noting. The largest manager among Asia Pacific strategies is much larger than its peers, while there is less variation among the top 10 managers for European and North American strategies,” said in report.

”The consolidation trend observed in previous years slowed slightly in 2018, with almost one in five managers indicating that they were involved in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activities over the last ten years. Previously it was almost one in four.”

Non-listed real estate vehicles (including funds, separate accounts, JVs, club deals, debt funds and funds of funds) accounted for 82.9% or €2.3 trillion of total assets under management.

Commenting on the findings, Lonneke Löwik, INREV’s CEO, said: ‘This report speaks to the robust health of our industry with a fifth consecutive year of growth. During this period €1 trillion has been added to total AUM, reflecting investors’ ongoing confidence in the asset class. The report also indicates that consolidation of the market is not yet over because, compared with other industries, the real estate market remains segmented despite the recent growth of larger global players.’

World’s top 10 real estate investment managers;

Blackstone Brookfield Asset Management PGIM Nuveen Real Estate Hines Prologis CBRE Global Investors UBS Asset Management AXA Investment Managers – Real Assets AEW

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