Essentials of Private Real Estate
Private real estate funds invest directly in real estate properties ranging from warehouses to apartments.
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introduction to Private real estate
Where You Invest Matters
Sector and manager selection are critical. To benefit from private real estate’s opportunities, important considerations include asset quality and growth potential.
Ken Caplan, Global Co-Chief Investment Officer, and Kathleen McCarthy, Global Co-Head of Blackstone Real Estate, discuss the fundamentals of private real estate, key strategies and access to the asset class, along with Blackstone’s investment approach.
Private real estate focuses on commercial, income-generating properties across a wide range of assets from warehouses and multifamily housing to office, hotel and retail. It excludes the for-sale residential market of both new and existing homes.
Data Centers
Industrial
Rental Housing
With more than 90% of commercial real estate privately owned,[ 5 ] the private opportunity set is several multiples the size of publicly traded real estate. Yet individual investors on average hold considerably less than 3% of commercial real estate in their portfolios[ 1 ] — due in part to a historic lack of access and a need to better understand where to invest. This underallocation by individual vs. institutional investors is now changing.[ 6 ]
Why Private Real Estate?
Portfolio Diversification Benefits
Income & Inflation
Low Correlation
Attractive Risk-Adjusted Returns
Where You Invest Matters
When investing in private real estate, selecting the right sectors, markets and assets is critical to generating strong performance. It is important to focus on high-quality assets with outsized growth potential driven by long-term, secular tailwinds.
This means identifying and concentrating capital around major trends, such as the rise of e-commerce,[ 14 ] a structural undersupply in housing, or the growth in cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
Manager selection is also critical to success. Blackstone is the world’s largest owner of commercial real estate with a 30+ year track record, serving individual and institutional investors alike.[ 15 ]
Not All Real Estate Is Created Equal[ 16 ]
Cumulative Performance (US Sectors, 2008-2023)
Unlocking Value Through Private Market Ownership
Private real estate managers may have greater flexibility than public REITs to invest in areas of highest conviction and execute on complex transactions given they are less subject to public market forces. Managers in private markets can more easily drive long-term value-creation opportunities, whereas public market participants may face pressure to achieve predictable quarterly earnings.
A CASE STUDY
High Conviction, Thematic Investing: QTS Data Centers
The privatization of QTS Realty Trust, a ≈$10bn data center public REIT, exemplifies Blackstone’s commitment to high conviction thematic investing, capitalizing on long-term trends in data growth. In fact, more data was created in the last 3 years (2021-2024) than all of history combined.[ 17 ]
Just as e-commerce drove demand for warehouses, cloud computing, content creation and now artificial intelligence are driving the surge in data creation and consumption. Blackstone views the rise of artificial intelligence as a once-in-a-generation engine for future growth in data centers and is committed to unlocking the full power of QTS’ platform through private ownership.
Capitalizing on Surging Growth in Data Creation
Data Created, Consumed & Stored (Zettabytes)
Read the complete Essentials of Private Real Estate
Read the complete Essentials of Private Real Estate
Essentials of Private Markets
Learn how assets such as private real estate, credit and equity can fit into investment portfolios.