"Today's opportunistic real estate private equity fund sector has its roots in the aftermath of the sell-off of failed loans and other assets by the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) in the late 1980s and early 1990s," says Dale Anne Reiss, Global Industry Leader-Real Estate, Ernst & Young. "Since 1991, our survey suggests the industry has raised in excess of $90 billion for opportunistic investing in real estate," she says.

Survey responses were obtained by Ernst & Young's Real Estate Private Equity Funds Services Group from 48 fund General Partners and supplemented by information available and verifiable publicly. In total, the participants in the survey represented $72.3 billion of equity in 145 funds raised between 1988 and 2001.

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