LONDON—Mirroring the recent history of the private equity industry as a whole, the closed-end private real estate industry saw its numbers decline in the third quarter, Preqin said Tuesday. Both the number of vehicles that reached a close during Q3 (38) and the total capital raise (US$20 billion) represented the lowest tallies since at least Q1 2013, although Preqin expects the figures to rise by about 10% as more information becomes available. What is increasing is the average size of the funds.

“Over the past few quarters, real estate fundraising has struggled to remain consistent, and 2017 seems to be on course to see some of the lowest capital totals in the past five years,” says Oliver Senchal, head of real estate products at Preqin. “Compared to Q2, the number of funds closed in Q3 was a little more than half, and aggregate capital raised in the quarter is following a similar trend of decline.”

Senchal notes that Europe-focused fundraising has especially suffered this quarter, seeing 10 funds close at a total of $4.6 billion. That compares to Q2, when 19 European-focused funds raised at total of approximately $16 billion. Nonetheless, it represents an increase from the year-ago period, when nine funds raised a total of $3 billion.