Blackstone Group and Carlyle Group are leading a record number of private-equity managers aiming to raise real estate funds as the world’s top buyout firms accelerate an expansion beyond corporate takeovers.
Blackstone, the biggest private-equity firm, is planning to raise its next real estate fund, with a target of about $10 billion. Carlyle is in the process of raising a new fund for U.S. property deals, said a person briefed on the plan who asked not to be named because the fund is private.
The two are among 439 private-equity real estate funds seeking a combined $160 billion, the largest number on record.
“There’s a whole world of problems out there and properties need capital to be maintained and to grow,” KKR’s Rosenberg said in an interview. “New capital is going to have to solve these problems, because there’s not a broad liquid market to restructure real estate like there was in corporate debt.”
“A lot of the private-equity guys and real estate guys are looking at this and realizing there’s a lot of distress out there,” said Steve Coyle, chief investment officer of Global Realty Partners.
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