The mega-fund is back, and it’s very big. One-quarter of the real estate private equity funds holding a final close in the first nine months of 2018, according to Institutional Real Estate, Inc.’s FundTracker database, could be classed as mega-funds — those raising more than $1 billion. And more than half of those mega-funds closed in the third quarter. In fact, the third quarter had 14 mega-funds close with a total fundraise of $29.6 billion — 77 percent of the $38.4 billion raised in the third quarter overall.

Those mega-fund closings have pushed up average fund size substantially in 2018. Real estate private equity funds holding a final close in the first three quarters of 2018 had an average fund size of $971 million, much higher than the 2017 and 2016 averages of $668 million and $653 million, respectively.

Fundraising totals are on a tear in 2018. With $100 billion raised in the first three quarters of the year, the 2018 12-month total has a chance to bre