BlackRock closes on $1.175b for Asia Property Fund V

BlackRock Real Assets has raised $1.175 billion for its BlackRock Asia Property Fund V (AFV), surpassing its $1 billion fundraising target despite market volatility created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

AFV was backed by a diverse group of institutional investors across Europe, Asia and the Americas, including private pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, family offices and endowments. BlackRock said 75 percent of existing investors in the predecessor fund, as well as new investors, committed capital to AFV.

The value-add strategy will invest in real estate assets across Asia Pacific.

“Our strategy remains tilted toward the conservative end of the value-add spectrum to build a portfolio of cash-generating assets offering a large spread between yield and funding costs,” said John Saunders, head of BlackRock Asia Pacific Real Estate. “This has proven to be a very resilient strategy during 2020, during which we have seen rent collection, occ