LONDON and NEW YORK CITY—The current year is shaping up as the best one for opportunistic real estate fundraising since the capital markets meltdown in 2008, says Preqin. Year-to-date fundraising by closed-end opportunistic private real estate funds has totaled $47.7 billion globally, a figure that already surpasses the $34.5 billion total of funds that closed during 2014.

The third quarter of 2015 was an especially successful period for opportunistic fundraising. Funds that held their final close during Q3 raised a total of $28.2 billion, three-quarters of the total raised by all private real estate funds during the quarter. That's nearly four times as much as opportunistic funds raised in the previous quarter.

Q3 saw closings by 33 closed-end private real estate funds—opportunistic and otherwise—globally, and they raised an aggregate $37.5 billion. While this represents a decline in number from the 58 funds closed in Q2, it also represents a 29% increase in the aggregate capital raised.

Opportunistic investing appears to lend itself to scale in real estate fundraising. Preqin says seven of the 10 largest funds that closed during Q3, and all of the 10 largest private real estate funds ever closed, focus on the opportunistic end of the spectrum.

Both of those top 10 lists naturally include the new record-holder for a private real estate fund, Blackstone's mammoth Blackstone Real Estate Partners VIII. At $15.8 billion, the fund exceeds the previous record-holder, BREP VII, by $2.5 billion.

Even aside from Blackstone's ceiling-buster, opportunity funds have been getting larger this year, Preqin says. The average size of opportunistic funds has increased to $1.47 billion for funds that have closed so far this year, compared to an average of $460 million for funds that closed last year.

This level of activity appears poised to continue. Preqin has identified 125 opportunistic funds in the market worldwide that are seeking a combined $46.9 billion. That includes a half dozen such funds with capital targets of $1.5 billion or more.

Across the spectrum of private real estate funds, there are 437 such funds in the market worldwide, seeking a combined $152 billion in capital, according to Preqin. This represents an increase from the 416 in the market at the end of Q2, although the aggregate target capital amount has not changed.

“The first three quarters of '15 have seen more capital raised for opportunistic real estate funds than in any full year since the Global Financial Crisis,” says Andrew Moylan, head of real assets products at Preqin. “With concerns over pricing core assets, many institutional investors have moved up the risk curve in search of returns.”

Moylan adds that opportunistic funds account for more than half of all capital raised by real estate funds closed so far tis year. “Several of the largest players in the real estate private equity industry have closed such funds this year, including the largest ever real estate fund, managed by Blackstone Group, and offerings from Lone Star Funds, Starwood Capital Group and Carlyle Group,” he says. “With more mega funds currently being marketed, and institutional investor appetite for opportunistic funds still high, fundraising is likely to remain strong in the coming quarters.”