The PERE Podcast

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.

It's difficult to have any conversation about private capital markets today without artificial intelligence adoption or private credit tension coming up. Whether the take is positive, neutral or negative, very real risks are leading more capital partners to look for alternative realms in which to diversify their holdings and line up management partners who excel beyond pure investment activity.

For globally scaled managers in the space, such as Sixth Street, today’s market is shaping up to offer more opportunities, but the real estate market still has its own obstacles to grapple with. Whether vying for a slice of the senior housing market or simply trying to stave off turbulence until clear skies emerge, being an active dealmaker in 2026 carries its own set of hurdles.

In this episode of The PERE Podcast, Marcos Alvarado, a partner at Sixth Street and its head of US real estate, gives us an inside look at how his team is approaching the investment puzzle as it relates to private real estate credit and equity markets.

The global real estate investment manager has been looking beyond pure capital relations to further differentiate itself from contemporaries in the current market. As Alvarado notes, market participants are prioritizing firms that can add to their artificial intelligence understanding and implementation, enhance their portfolio allocation approach, and provide bespoke data insights beyond what is available in the mainstream.

Consolidation comes for every facet of the real estate landscape at some point, or so the most scaled participants and their acquisition targets often say. 

But in today’s market, specialized managers and their business partners are looking for more than just assets under management when evaluating inorganic growth opportunities. In the case of Chatham Financial's acquisition of Hodes Weill & Associates, broken exclusively last week by PERE, the value of connectivity was on full display. 

In this episode, David Hodes, co-managing partner and founder of the business named in his and Douglas Weill's sake, joins the discussion to unpack where the team sees opportunities moving forward, especially as repeat relations and data capabilities play more outsized roles in a perceivably tougher capital-raising environment. 

The blending of Chatham and Hodes Weill ultimately creates an all-weather outfit which will see real estate debt and equity lines merged into a larger combined force, a resounding theme playing out among fund managers in today’s market too. And with allocators wanting more concentrated partner rosters, such a combination is expected to make a smoother roadway for capital relations ahead.

The real estate investment management market is coming to terms with its latest hurdle this week. The cost of debt has been on the rise for some time, as select managers have told affiliated PERE titles. And in today’s market, the cost of doing business may now be outweighing borrowers’ ability to keep pace and hold their investment strategies steady heading into this market cycle.

Though the impact to date has been moderate, as highlighted earlier this week in analysis shared by PERE, central banks are moving toward more defensive positions. The possibility of rate cuts has diminished as a result, as noted in a March episode of The PERE Podcast.

All this sets the table for how borrowers will need to reshape their own tack to keep lines open with debt capital markets while they have liquidity to keep capital moving.

In this episode, PGIM’s head of real estate credit strategies Bryan McDonnell provides his perspective on the situation at hand. Be it at the Newark-based manager or beyond, real estate fund managers and investors are having to recalculate their basis and re-order how they navigate the next wave of acquisitions, holds and exits arriving in their pipelines.

This episode is sponsored by Arrow Global

European hospitality markets have thrived in the post-pandemic period, supported by a surge in international visitor numbers. And the warmer climate of Southern Europe makes countries like Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece enduringly popular with holidaymakers.

Investment capital has flowed in, driving rapid institutionalization of a market formerly characterized by family-run hotels. Southern European hospitality markets offer a range of entry points for investors across the capital stack, from equity to senior credit, and the opportunity to make attractive income-driven returns. However, increased competition means bargains have become hard to find.

In this special episode of The PERE Podcast, John Calvao, co-founder and head of real estate and hospitality at Arrow Global, offers insights on how to navigate the challenges of a market where execution risk is considerable and customers are demanding ever-increasing levels of service.

He argues that local expertise and on-the-ground delivery capability are crucial to managing costs and ensuring that capex is spent where it generates the greatest impact on returns. Calvao also explains the importance of controlling resort “ecosystems” so that hotels, amenities and attractions like golf courses combine to generate year-round activity and maximize revenue.