Global real estate assets under management (AUM) have risen for the first time since 2021, climbing 5.7% year on year to reach €3.8trn at the end of 2025, as the market moves beyond its repricing cycle, according to a survey by real estate associations ANREV, INREV and NCREIF.
According to the Fund Manager Survey 2026, the latest figures exceed the €3.6trn recorded at year-end 2024, marking the end of a three-year contraction and pointing to a “market beginning to recover, supported by interest rate stabilisation, improving property valuations and a gradual return of investor confidence”.
The findings come six months after IPE Real Assets’ most recent Top 150 real estate investment managers report found that AUM among the largest 150 firms had fallen for the third year in a row, to €5.72trn.
INREV said the rise in AUM reflected improving conditions across major markets. After three consecutive years of contraction from the 2021 peak of €4.1trn, the 2025 results point to a market that has worked through the worst of the repricing cycle, the survey said.
During the period, core real estate allocations rose from 63% to 72% globally, the highest level in several years, while opportunistic allocations fell from 27% to 20%. In Europe, core reached 83%, its highest share in over 5 years, while North American core allocations rose from 80% to 87%.
The European trend is partly driven by growing capital flows into residential and living strategies, which most managers classify as core.
Upper-quartile managers maintained their dominance, accounting for over €3trn of global real estate AUM. However, the most notable shift came from third-quartile managers, whose market share rose from 12% to 16%.
Overall, merger and acquisition activity outpaced expectations: 15% of managers were involved in mergers during 2025 and 11% completed acquisitions, with both figures exceeding the levels anticipated in the previous year’s survey.
Total AUM for the global top 10 fund managers remained steady at €1.9trn, with the rankings showing notable stability at the top. Blackstone retained its leading position with €480.8bn, followed by Brookfield Asset Management in second place with €236bn and Prologis in third with €200.3bn.
Global dry powder fell to €179bn at year-end 2025, the lowest level since the survey began tracking this metric in 2020, and equivalent to 6.7% of total AUM.
Iryna Pylypchuk, director of research and market Information at INREV, said: “For the first time in three years, global real estate AUM has grown – and the signals are more encouraging than the number itself. The return to core is the clearest indication that investor confidence is rebuilding. This is not a defensive rotation. When managers and investors move back toward core in the volumes we are seeing – particularly in Europe and North America – it reflects genuine conviction in the underlying fundamentals of the asset class.
“The consolidation story is also entering a new phase. If the new capital raised by third quartile managers is put to work as we expect, the momentum visible in this year’s data has further to run. And there is clear evidence that real estate is changing structurally. Looking at average AUM per employee, the ratio has increased by over 30% from €56m per employee in 2007 to approximately €73m in 2025. This highlights the evolution of real estate to a mature asset class. While firms have grown substantially in size, the increase in assets under management has outpaced the workforce growth on a per-employee basis, reflecting the increasing organisational complexity and how managers applied economies of scale and new technologies.
“Four in 10 managers in Europe and North America are now acquiring operational platforms – indicating a growing understanding of the need to move beyond traditional real estate practices to generate returns. The managers who will lead the next cycle are those with the operational expertise to accompany capital.”
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