Goldman Sachs has raised its second dedicated real estate secondaries fund, Vintage Real Estate Partners II, with approximately $2.75 billion in capital commitments, exceeding their $1.25 billion target.
The fund invests globally in both traditional real estate limited partnership interests as well as more complex structured and non-traditional secondary transactions, providing liquidity to investors in illiquid real estate assets.
VREP II is the second dedicated real estate secondaries fund raised by the Vintage team. The team’s first real estate secondaries fund, Vintage Real Estate Partners, closed on approximately $900 million in capital commitments in November 2016. The group has been investing in real estate secondary transactions since 2010 through their flagship Vintage funds.
VREP II includes a diversified investor base of high quality institutional and high-net-worth individuals, including a number of commitments from existing investors as well as those new to the strategy, both from the United States as well as from countries like the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Canada and Chile.
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“We’re grateful for the trust that our investors have placed in us. While many of these investors are longstanding partners in our Vintage Funds, we are pleased to welcome a number of new investors as well. The success of this fundraise is a credit to our global franchise, our established presence in the market, our experienced team, and our track record of investing in real estate secondaries,” said Harold Hope, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs.
As of March 31, 2020, VREP II had completed five transactions, with a significant amount of capital available to deploy in this period of market dislocation caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19).
“The secondary market for real estate interests has grown substantially over the past several years, and we have seen both an increase in volumes as well the emergence of non-traditional secondary structures, similar to what we have been executing on the private equity side for many years. As we enter a period of dislocation, we anticipate a range of compelling buying opportunities. These include providing liquidity to limited partners motivated by the denominator effect and unfunded liabilities, as well as partnering with managers seeking to capitalize on reset pricing across the real estate landscape. We believe that our size and ability to move with speed and certainty will be key differentiators in the coming years,” said Sean Brenan, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs.
