It was only a short 10 years ago that real estate investors and managers were sorting through the wreckage caused by the global financial crisis. Fund managers were dealing with redemptions, properties were being repriced — in some cases, portfolio values declined 40 to 50 percent — and investors were tightening their purse strings as they focused on managing existing assets rather than making new deals. In short, things were pretty bleak.

Fast forward to today, and the global real estate industry has reached new heights, riding a wave of unprecedented economic expansion in some regions. To provide some perspective to the industry’s quick and impressive turnaround, consider that the assets under management of the top 100 real estate investment managers totaled approximately $1.2 trillion in 2008. Based on 2018 data, the top 100 firms now account for AUM of nearly $3.48 trillion, according to Global Investment Managers 2019, the annual survey and report produced