Despite a wave of new lockdowns at the start of 2021, Partners Group expects an increase in activity in the global commercial real estate sector this year, as potential negative year-end 2020 valuation adjustments get absorbed and sellers adjust their price expectations. In certain instances, we also anticipate there could be deeper distress felt by both GPs and LPs, particularly those exposed to retail, hospitality and troubled office assets, with a fall in valuations and capital constraints leading to distressed sales activity, frequently triggered by lending banks.

As outlined in Partners Group’s Private Markets Navigator 2021, our annual market outlook, there has been a clear divergence in performance across real estate segments since the COVID-19 outbreak this past year.

Logistics has been the relative winner, as strong growth in ecommerce has driven the demand for last-mile logistics, supporting rental levels, and this growth shows no sign of slowing d