Goldman makes headway on latest RE secondaries fund with first close

Goldman's predecessor Fund II raised $2.75bn, making it the third-largest real estate secondaries fund raised at the time.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management has held a first close on its latest real estate secondaries fund.

The asset manager has collected $675 million for Vintage Real Estate III, including non-US investors and separate accounts, according to a source familiar with the matter. The fund has been in market since September.

Around $264 million of this came from US investors, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The target of the vehicle is not clear. Goldman declined to comment on fundraising.

The Vintage team’s 2020-vintage predecessor Fund II raised $2.75 billion by final close in 2020, making it the third-largest real estate secondaries fund raised up to that point, as Secondaries Investor reported.

“When you invest in a real estate opportunities fund, they’re doing strategies that are much higher risk and return, like development, repositioning and buying land,” said Goldman partner and head of secondaries Harold Hope at the time. “When you buy that fund on a secondary basis in year five, six or seven, it’s a very different risk profile.”

With the GP-led and LP-led secondaries markets experiencing dislocation due to covid-19, Fund II made several preferred equity investments with managers looking to strengthen their portfolios.

Among these was a $200 million preferred equity injection into a portfolio of five assets managed by Colony Credit Real Estate, a subsidiary of Colony Capital, Secondaries Investor reported. Colony, which has $47 billion in assets under management, renamed  to DigitalBridge last year.

Real estate transactions accounted for just over $8 billion, or 6 percent, of transaction volumes last year, according to data from Greenhill.

– This article has been updated to reflect that the fund launched in September 2022.