Blackstone’s bosses have said the investment giant is “the best-positioned firm in the world” to take advantage of the unfolding real estate recovery.
Stephen Schwarzman, chairman and chief executive, described the final months of 2024 as “one of the best quarters in our history” as the firm announced fourth-quarter and full-year results. Net income for the fourth quarter stood at $1.3bn, up from $109.1m a year earlier, with the full-year figure coming in at $5.4bn, more than double that of a year ago.
In its real estate division, the firm saw inflows of $27.9bn over the year, with $25.3bn of capital deployed and $22.2bn in realisations.
Inflows in the final quarter included $1.9bn in its fifth real estate debt strategies fund, $1bn in its seventh European opportunistic fund, $905m of capital raised in BREIT, and $403m in Blackstone Americas Logistics within Core+.
On an earnings call, president and chief operating officer Jonathan Gray said: “One year ago, we said that real estate values were bottoming, but that the recovery would take time and was unlikely to be the shape. That’s exactly what happened. We remain firm believers that a sustained commercial real estate recovery is underway. Debt markets have vastly improved as borrowing spreads tightened by approximately 50%… and CMBS issuance was up nearly threefold in 2024.”
At the same time, Gray said, new construction starts have fallen “dramatically” across all asset classes, failing to keep pace with demand.
“Given our conviction, we deployed $25bn in real estate in 2024, up nearly 70% year over year, and we expect to continue to deploy at scale,” Gray added. “Real estate is a cyclical asset class that has been through a cyclical downturn. And we believe Blackstone is the best-positioned firm in the world to benefit from the recovery. The firm is in terrific shape by any measure.”
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