Singapore’s CapitaLand dominated the real estate fund manager AUM rankings in Asia Pacific last year, as regional strategies attracted a greater slice of global capital.
CapitaLand took the top spot with US$55.9bn in Asia Pacific assets under management, followed by GLP with US$36.3bn and Mapletree with US$28.3bn, according to a fund manager survey compiled by ANREV, INREV and NCREIF.
Blackstone, the largest real estate fund manager in the world, broke the $200bn mark for the first time, recording US$230.6bn in global real estate AUM, up 19% on the previous year. 
Globally, Blackstone was followed by Brookfield Asset Management with US$187.3bn of AUM, PGIM (US$168.9bn), Nuveen Real Estate (US$124.6bn) and Hines (US$119.4bn).
Asia Pacific strategies gained a greater share of the global market, increasing to 18.4% of total real estate AUM in 2018, up from 16.9% the previous year.
European and North American strategies continued to claim the largest holdings, accounting for about 35% each.
In Asia Pacific, non-listed real estate vehicles, including funds, separate accounts, joint ventures, club deals, funds of funds, and debt products, made up 73.6% of total real estate AUM.
Asia Pacific investors accounted for 75.1% of capital invested in non-listed real estate strategies in Asia Pacific, followed by North American investors (14.2%) and European investors (10.2%).
Pension funds represented 50.2% of non-listed direct real estate AUM in Asia Pacific, with sovereign wealth funds accounting for 15.7% and insurance companies holding 11.2%.
The survey noted that the significant growth among some fund managers reflected continuing consolidation in the real estate industry, with one in five managers reporting M&A activity over the past decade.