The PERE Podcast

Market watchers are closely tracking the rise and fall of SpaceX’s share price a month after the firm raised $75 billion in a historic initial public offering fueled by, among other things, the prospect of data centers built in space.

But in the eyes of Fifth Wall’s Brendan Wallace, the event will have equally loud reverberations in the private markets – not just for what it could mean for digital infrastructure, but what it could mean for the way we think about commercial real estate more broadly.

“I think SpaceX is actually very relevant,” says Wallace, chief executive and chief investment officer at the real estate and technology-focused venture firm. “I think it’s the next iteration of what real estate means as an industry, and I think it’s forcing the real estate industry to grapple with that existential question.”

In this episode, Wallace sits down with PERE's editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse to discuss the private real estate angle to SpaceX’s public-market splash as the basis for a broader discussion about real estate’s ongoing evolution as an institutional asset class, and where its next frontiers could be.

Wallace also shares some of the rationale behind his firm’s latest and largest investment yet – a $135 million commitment to Atoms, the industrial robotics start-up that raised a $1.7 billion funding round last week – and why that, too, is really a real estate venture.

An exciting new era begins this week at PERE, and the latest episode of The PERE Podcast brings listeners inside our relaunch as an all-in-one intelligence platform covering the full breadth of the world’s private real estate capital markets.

The award-winning editorial content, exclusive data and peer-to-peer network our members know and love are not going anywhere. Instead, we are combining our three specialized purviews across PERE, PERE Credit and PERE Deals into a single, integrated platform, including an upgraded, user-intuitive and customizable digital platform available at pei-privaterealestate.com.

Listen as host Greg Dool sits down with editor-in-chief Jonathan Brasse and senior editor Evelyn Lee to preview some key features of the new platform. Also discussed is the market context behind this strategic move for PERE and how we hope it will help listeners, readers and members stay ahead of the competition.

“Right now, private real estate professionals are looking for any edge they can have over the competition,” said Lee. “And we provide that edge through comprehensive information, cutting across various information silos.”

The launch of the inaugural PERE Credit 100 ranking marks a defining moment for real estate private credit, reflecting both the sector’s sustained growth and its evolving role within institutional investor portfolios.  

To mark the milestone, PERE Credit hosted a launch breakfast last week at New York’s One Vanderbilt, bringing together leading market participants from across the industry. Senior lending and investor relations professionals took part in a panel moderated by Daniel Cunningham, PERE Credit’s Europe editor.  

On this episode of The PERE Podcast, host McKenna Leavens is joined by Cunningham and Samantha Rowan, editor of PERE Credit, to unpack the key takeaways from the event and explore where the private real estate credit market is heading next.

Later in the episode, partner and head of real estate credit at KKR, Matt Salem, speaks to what he is hearing from his desk. The PERE Podcast has been granted permission to publish this exclusive excerpt from an off-the-record panel.

The data underscores the sector’s momentum. The top 50 managers in the ranking raised $304.7 billion over the past five years, an 18 percent increase compared to the prior year’s cumulative total across the same base period. Yet, as Cunningham notes, the story behind the numbers is more complex than it first appears. While capital continues to flow into the sector broadly, real estate credit still lacks a clearly defined allocation within institutional portfolios, leaving it in a somewhat ambiguous position between asset classes like real estate equity and corporate credit. 

Looking ahead, the opportunity set for real estate credit appears compelling, supported by reset valuations and a significant wave of refinancing activity. However, uncertainty around interest rates, regulatory pressures and broader technological disruption continues to cloud the outlook. 

As PERE Credit expands its global footprint, the Credit 100 ranking offers a timely benchmark for a sector that is not only scaling, but still in the process of defining its role within the broader investment landscape.

With digital transformation workflows already well engrained in data center demand, cloud computing needs growing by almost a third annually, and a world entering an era defined by artificial intelligence, Austin-based Digital Realty finds itself facing serious capital requirements.

The world's biggest data center REIT by footprint, the firm is turning to private markets for a solution that can complement its already extensive use of public equity and debt markets.

In the same month PERE broke news of the REIT’s plans to launch both open- and closed-ended private funds in each of the three major regions, CEO Andy Power spoke to The PERE Podcast about the thesis behind Digital Realty's plans amid the wider capital and opportunity context.

Listen as Power speaks – in person – to PERE editor‑in‑chief Jonathan Brasse about the move and why private markets may be best positioned to support what the firm sees as an unprecedented wave of investment demand.

The post-covid era and its historically challenged fund vintages have invited greater scrutiny of managers’ track records and particularly their willingness to accept risk. As investors consider allocating more capital into an anticipated market upswing, one metric is increasingly catching their attention.

Loss ratios – in short, the percentage of a fund or manager’s deals that result in losses – have long been tracked as a simple way of assessing how much risk a firm typically takes on. But they are now rising in prominence as fund exits reveal just how widespread the losses have been over the last five years.

This episode takes listeners inside this month’s PERE cover story on loss ratios and how investors and their consultants are using them to take a more nuanced view of fund and manager performance.

Listen as host Greg Dool speaks with PERE editor Evelyn Lee to break down the numbers and how allocators are interpreting them. Joining the episode is Jeff Giller, head of StepStone Real Estate, who shares his perspective on loss ratios and how they relate to other key metrics.