Blackstone’s real estate arm is regaining its stride after a rocky few years. Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust delivered an 8.1% total return in 2025—its best annual performance in three years—according to the company. While that figure trails its five-year average return of 9.1%, it stands out in a market where many nontraded REITs lagged behind.
BREIT’s rebound marks a sharp turnaround from the turbulence of 2022 and 2023, when it, along with Starwood Real Estate Income Trust, faced heavy redemption requests. As the Financial Times noted, many Asian investors withdrew funds to cover leveraged positions after regional property markets plunged. BREIT didn’t fully meet withdrawal requests again until February 2024—the first time since October 2022.
Stability came slowly, fueled by strategic deals and portfolio adjustments. BREIT secured a $54 billion commitment from the University of California’s endowment, which guaranteed a minimum net return of 11.25% over six years. Even as late as March 2025, the European Real Estate News Agency reported that BREIT was expected to keep selling assets to build liquidity.
Much of BREIT’s recovery rested on a shift in focus toward sectors it viewed as more resilient. In both 2024 and 2025, 87% of its portfolio was concentrated in rental housing, industrial, and data centers—but the internal mix evolved. By 2025, data centers accounted for 21%, compared with 13% a year earlier, while industrial and multifamily assets stood at 22% and 19%, respectively.
That growing emphasis on data centers followed Blackstone’s $6.7 billion acquisition of QTS in 2021 and an additional $8 billion investment in 2023 to expand facilities geared toward artificial intelligence infrastructure. “Large technology companies are in the midst of an AI arms race which we believe will be a once-in-a-generation engine for future growth in data centers,” BREIT told investors at the time.
Kevin Gannon, chief executive of investment bank Robert A. Stanger & Co., told The Wall Street Journal that “real estate hit bottom last June and has been in recovery ever since.” Many other nontraded REITs, however, have struggled to pivot as effectively, maintaining exposure to property types more vulnerable to persistent high interest rates.
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