Macquarie Asset Management (MAM) has announced the final close of Macquarie Real Estate Partners (MREP), an opportunistic real estate fund with approximately $US1.9 bn (€1.77 bn) of equity to deploy under a global strategy.
Contributing institutions including pension and sovereign wealth funds in Australia, Canada and the Middle East.
MREP is the second vehicle in Macquarie Asset Management Real Estate’s opportunistic fund series, following the Asia-Pacific opportunistic real estate partnership (MREP Asia 1), which held its final close in 2021 and is now deployed across developed markets in the region.
The series’ strategy aims to create a diversified portfolio targeting real estate sectors aligned to the key global themes of technology, demographic shifts and sustainability.
Eric Wurtzebach, global head of real estate at Macquarie Asset Management, said: 'We have a long history of investing in specialist operators and we are delighted to secure the close of our second opportunistic vehicle leveraging this strategy.
'Our existing and new investors have demonstrated strong support for this strategy which both enhances our access to high quality real estate and provides an opportunity to generate alpha.'
To date, capital from MREP has been deployed across the logistics, living and new economy office sectors. This includes: logistics warehousing groups, Logistics Property Company in the US and Unified Industrial in Asia-Pacific; rental housing platform, Goodstone Living in the UK; European sustainable office developer, Edge and a partnership with US self-storage specialist, LaTerra Storage.
The portfolio also includes an investment in a land lease community business in Australia, which will service the residential housing requirements for the growing over 55 demographic.
These investments and partnerships with specialist operators aim to enhance MREP’s access to real estate opportunities that the real estate cycle presents over the next 12-18 months.
The broader series has also invested in an Australian build-to-rent platform, Local Residential, and specialist residential community developer, Winton in New Zealand.
