Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. is expecting to do US $20 billion of real estate transactions in a two-month period as the recovery in the sector accelerates with an anticipated spread to the hard-hit office segment, its chief executive said.
“What we’re seeing on the ground is far ahead of what you’re reading in the headlines,” Connor Teskey , who took over as Brookfield’s CEO in February, told analysts on a conference call Friday morning.
“In fact, we are seeing very significant increases in transaction activity, deal volumes and recovery and valuations.”
He said the US$20-billion in expected asset deal flow will largely take place in non-office segments such as hospitality, logistics and housing.
However, despite lower deal volume in office, Teskey said transactions in the sector are poised to rebound .
“The fundamentals for office are absolutely flying,” he said, adding that this is largely the result of no new construction for years following pandemic lockdowns.
“There was no new supply generated starting in 2020 because of the pandemic, and then following 2020 because of the rise of rates, and then following that because of work from home concerns,” he said.
“So we’ve now seen a recovery in demand that’s being matched by zero new supply in the market and in tier one markets, we’re seeing the top come off rents.”
In some cases, he said, rents are 50 per cent to 80 per cent higher than they were five years ago.
“If that continues, it’s only logical that we’re going to see the deal activity return to that sector as well,” Teskey told analysts.
Brookfield executives have been bullish about a recovery in office real estate since last year, when Teskey’s predecessor Bruce Flatt, the alternative asset manager’s long-tenured CEO and now its chair, highlighted office supply dynamics in New York and London that he said would lead to a rebound over the next five years.
“It’s about supply, demand, interest rates and financing and it’s all coming back,” Flatt said in September.
On Friday’s conference call to discuss Brookfield’s first-quarter financial results, Teskey said the alternative asset manager is also poised to capitalize on “dislocation” in credit markets, in part through a credit franchise obtained via the full integration of Oaktree Capital Management.
Last October, Brookfield announced a deal to buy the 26 per cent of Los Angeles-based Oaktree it did not already own for US$3 billion. Oaktree, which had US$209 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2025, has business lines outside of credit, but executives described it as the “tentpole” of the firm.
Dislocations in segments including software could lead to the deployment of billions of dollars over the next couple of years, executives said on the conference call.
Synergies between the two alternative investment firms, which first partnered through a Brookfield investment in 2019, will come largely on the revenue side and through combining their balance sheets on a single platform, executives said on the conference call.
Brookfield reported an 11 per cent increase in fee-related earnings in the first quarter ended March 31 and net income of US$586 million compared to US$507 million in the corresponding period a year earlier.
“Our leading positions in infrastructure, energy, real estate, and essential services-focused private equity are well suited to this environment and enable us to deliver strong performance and outsized growth,” Teskey said in a news release.
“We have significant capital available to deploy as opportunities emerge, market leading positions in the fastest growing alternatives segments, and limited exposure to areas of market stress.”
During the first quarter, Brookfield raised US$3.4 billion, including US$800 million for the firm’s infrastructure private wealth strategy, which now has more than US$8 billion of capital. An additional US$800 million was raised for Brookfield’s “supercore” infrastructure strategy, which now has more than US$20 billion of capital.
• Email: bshecter@nationalpost.com