Private equity real estate funds are set to surpass last year's total of $59.5 billion in 2007, with up to $80 billion in new capital, suggests data compiled by Private Equity Real Estate, a global magazine covering the real estate investment industry.
“There is really nothing on the horizon, both from the global economic perspective and from the real estate perspective, to deter the flow of money into real estate,” says Paul Fruchbom, a New York-based editor with the publication. “A lot of it will be probably invested in Europe and Asia, where there's been a lot of activity lately and where a lot of major players, like Morgan Stanley, have been going.”
The majority, though, should still be in North America, where $22 billion worth of transactions were closed in the United States and Canada, $6 billion in Europe and $4 billion in Asia.
And he expects more nontraditional deals, like the Blackstone Group's $1.9-billion buyout of Madame Tussaud's wax museum earlier this year.