Real estate assets under management globally rose 11% in 2020 to $4.1 trillion, a show of resilience in a year dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, according to an annual fund manager survey by NCREIF, INREV and ANREV.
Of that total, non-listed real estate assets accounted for roughly $3.4 trillion, or 83%, the survey of 154 real estate management firms showed.
The latest gain was down from the 14% pace reported in 2019.
The Blackstone Group maintained — and strengthened — its lead as the top real estate manager globally, with a 15% gain in AUM to $319.4 billion, followed by Brookfield Asset Management, up 5% at $211.4 billion. Rounding out the top five were Prologis, with $148.3 billion; PGIM, with $145.6 billion; and Nuveen, with $132.9 billion.
For the first time, meanwhile, an Asia-Pacific firm, Singapore-based CapitaLand, cracked the top 10, taking 10th place with just over $100 billion.
Total real estate AUM in the Asia-Pacific region reached a record $726.9 billion in 2020, up 19.5% from $608.2 billion the year before.
Amelie Delaunay, director of research and professional standards at ANREV, in a news release, said the momentum the asset class was able to maintain in the face of the coronavirus pandemic is "an incredibly encouraging sign that appetite for real estate as a diversifier in investor portfolios has not waned."
