Global Real Estate AUM Rebounds With 19% Jump as CapitaLand Investment Leads APAC

Global real estate assets under management climbed 19 percent to $4.5 trillion at the end of 2025, marking the first annual increase since the market’s 2021 peak and pointing to a recovery in investor confidence after three years of contraction, according to a survey by non-profit groups serving the property fund industry.

The figure, up from $3.8 trillion a year earlier and second only to the $4.7 trillion recorded in 2021, was published Wednesday in the Fund Manager Survey 2026 by the Asian Association for Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate Vehicles (ANREV), its European counterpart INREV and Chicago-based fiduciary association NCREIF.

Singapore’s CapitaLand Investment rose to the top of the Asia Pacific table in terms of real estate AUM, followed by Australia’s Charter Hall and China-focused GLP Capital Partners, as the Temasek-controlled firm seized the crown from 2024 champ ESR.

“The return to core is the clearest indication that investor confidence is rebuilding,” said David Green-Morgan, director of research and professional standards at ANREV. “This is not a defensive rotation. When managers and investors move back toward core in the volumes we are seeing, it reflects genuine conviction in the underlying fundamentals of the asset class.”

Trading Places

CapitaLand Investment’s ascent marks a reshuffle from last year’s survey, when industrial giant ESR ranked first in APAC real estate AUM for a second year running, followed by GLP and CapitaLand Investment, with Charter Hall and Mapletree Investments rounding out the region’s top five for 2024.

SGX-listed CapitaLand Investment had S$125 billion ($97 billion) in funds under management at the end of March 2026, with Asia Pacific accounting for more than 90 percent of the total. The firm is maintaining its 2028 target of S$200 billion in FUM, which it defines as the total value of real estate assets managed by the group on behalf of third-party investors, joint venture partners and its own listed vehicles.

Globally, Blackstone retained its lead with $564 billion in real estate AUM, with Brookfield Asset Management ranking second and Prologis third, as the upper end of the manager table remained dominated by large-scale platforms.

MetLife Investment Management held fourth place globally, while UBS Asset Management moved back into fifth after ranking sixth last year, pushing PGIM Real Estate down one spot to sixth. BNP Paribas Asset Management, CBRE Investment Management, Nuveen and Starwood Capital rounded out the global top 10, according to the survey snapshot.

The latest ranking represents a shift from the 2025 survey, when GLP entered the global top 10 and joined ESR as one of two APAC-based managers in the worldwide leaderboard. Neither GLP nor ESR appeared in this year’s top 10 list, while CapitaLand Investment led the region without breaking into the global top tier.

Core Returns

The survey showed managers shifting back towards lower-risk, income-producing strategies, with core allocations rising to 72 percent globally from 63 percent in 2024, while opportunistic allocations fell to 20 percent from 27 percent.

The pivot was especially pronounced in Europe, where core strategies reached 83 percent of allocations, the highest level in more than five years. In North America, the shift was sharper still, with core rising to 87 percent from 80 percent.

Asia Pacific remained more evenly split between core and higher-return strategies, with ANREV describing the region’s allocation between core and value-add or opportunistic approaches as balanced.

The trend was partly driven by growing capital flows into residential and living strategies, which many managers classify as core, with the survey pointing to improving income fundamentals and stabilising valuations after the repricing cycle.

“Managers are now acquiring operational platforms, indicating a growing understanding of the need to move beyond traditional real estate practices to generate returns,” Green-Morgan said. “The managers who will lead the next cycle are those with the operational expertise to accompany capital.”

Dry Powder Rises

Global dry powder rose 4 percent to $211 billion at the end of 2025, though undeployed capital declined as a share of overall AUM to 6.7 percent from 7.5 percent a year earlier.

Capital raised increased 12 percent in US dollar terms to $138 billion during 2025, according to the survey, though fundraising remained well below 2021 and 2022 levels, when annual capital raised exceeded $250 billion.

The top 10 managers accounted for $2.2 trillion of global real estate AUM, holding steady with the prior year’s level and underscoring the continued concentration of capital among the largest investment platforms.

This year’s survey covered 106 managers reporting $4.5 trillion in real estate AUM. The results are based on data submitted directly to ANREV, INREV and NCREIF by managers, rather than on publicly available information.