Preqin: Real Estate Funds Are Winning, But for How Much Longer?
Real estate investors are enjoying better returns in recent years, but are still dreading overvaluations, a Preqin survey says. Over 90% of investors polled from private real estate funds are happy as returns met or exceeded expectations, a whopping figure, with only 9% being disappointed (as opposed to 19% in December 2013 and 47% in December 2012). At the top of the heap is (surprise, surprise) Blackstone (shown: Blackstone’s Jonathan Gray), whose global real estate fund brought in $15.8B. However, 63% of those surveyed said that valuations are their key concern, with deal flow (37%) and performance (30%) following distantly behind. This—combined with the fact that 26% plan to increase their exposure to real estate, while 22% plan to reduce it—may be why we’re not seeing more investors working with fund managers. Prequin head of real estate asset products Andrew Moylan is optimistic, however, saying that despite all of these concerns, investors are still planning to give huge capital to real estate.
