Fundraising

Bolstered by two Blackstone funds, capital raising volume for the quarter marked the first year-on-year increase for a Q1 total since 2022.

Stephenson Harwood partners Sarah de Ste Croix and Gabriel Boghossian outline the main ways continuation funds in the real estate sector differ from their private equity cousins in the secondaries market.

PERE data shows that investors and managers continue to target the strategy, especially in North America.

The California-based real estate manager hit the hard-cap on its second fund, which will target US hospitality and residential properties.

The real estate vehicle is the first to have a ‘value-add-plus’ strategy after the Dallas-based manager combined two of its fund series.

The vehicle also is the firm’s first fund raised since the sale of GCP’s international business to Ares Management.

This move comes as the firm approaches full deployment of capital from its first $900m international value-add strategy.

Eyeing an eclectic mix of niche property types, the manager more than tripled the haul of its previous opportunistic vehicle.

Co-led by Warburg Pincus’s former partner Joe Gagnon, the firm deployed approximately 40% of Fund I’s capital in 2024.

Participation from US investors declined compared with the fund’s predecessor, but the manager benefited from new capital sources in Asia.