As mentioned a few weeks ago in our first look at Q3 real estate fundraising, there is a big possibility that the COVID-19 pandemic is beginning to have an impact on real estate fundraising activity, given some investors’ reluctance to commit capital without a face-to-face meeting. But while preliminary data for the third quarter indicates a dropoff from the previous quarter ($43.6 billion was raised by funds closing in the second quarter), it is actually an increase on a year-over-year basis. The $23.2 billion raised by funds that closed in third quarter 2020 exceeds the $19.9 billion raised by funds that closed in third quarter 2019.

A total of 19 private equity funds reached a final closing in the third quarter bringing the year-to-date total to approximately $85.6 billion, approximately 16 percent behind the 2019 nine-month total of $103 billion. To reach the total year-end fundraising activity for 2019 of $120.5 billion, fourth-quarter volume would have to achieve a fu