Anyone who thought the giants of private equity – the pension funds, insurance companies, foundations and sovereign wealth funds – would be in a hurry to abandon the CRE markets amid the uncertainties in the real estate industry might be surprised by the results of PERE's H1 2023 investor report.

Far from running away, the funds increased their allocations to real estate by an average of 76 basis points, according to the report, which focuses on private equity real estate investors. This was true even for sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), which had reduced their commitments from 2019 to 2022. For the first time in four years, SWF allocations rose to 7.92% in H1 2023, just short of 1% higher than in H1 2022. In all, 47% of SWFs raised their exposure to real estate in H1 2023.

Indeed, the top 15 commitments to real estate funds by private investment totaled $3.73 billion in this period.