Fundraising by closed-end real estate funds appears to be relatively on track, even amid the COVID-19 outbreak. In fact, total capital raised by real estate funds that closed in April 2020 and May 2020 exceeded the total capital raised by real estate funds that closed in the same months of 2018 and 2019.

The pace of fundraising in the first five months of 2020 — with $44.4 billion raised — is approaching that of 2018, which saw $46.7 billion in the same period. First quarter 2019 — which saw the final close of two global real estate mega-funds with $33.3 billion in total equity — continues to be an outlier. Without those two funds, the first five months of 2019 had $41.9 billion in total capital raised.

Investing through this era will be among the challenges facing investment managers who are closing their funds at this point in time — with a global pandemic putting real estate markets into turmoil. Funds that were seeded early, or that have already invested