EXCLUSIVE: Morgan Stanley To Raise New Global Megafund

U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley has begun raising capital for its latest global real estate opportunity fund, Bisnow can reveal.

The company registered a new fund called North Haven Real Estate Fund XI Global in Luxembourg, with an SEC filing likely to follow shortly. 

Its last opportunity fund, North Haven Real Estate Fund X, raised $3.1B of equity in 2021. In February last year, investors in that fund agreed to extend its investment period by 12 months to give it more time to invest in a dislocated market.

That fund is now close to being fully invested. 

Morgan Stanley goes to market with its new vehicle at a tough time for real estate fundraising. About $10B was raised in the fourth quarter of 2024, data from Preqin showed, the lowest level since the pandemic began. 

Morgan Stanley’s opportunity funds can invest in any sector around the world, but its deals have concentrated on living sectors in recent years. 

In December, the firm partnered with Brightview Senior Living to acquire a portfolio of eight U.S. senior housing communities from Harrison Street. The portfolio, which Brightview originally developed, comprises 1,186 units across the Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, metropolitan areas.

Morgan Stanley said senior living has been a major theme of its real estate business since the beginning of the pandemic. It's funds now own 30 senior living communities across the U.S. with nearly 3,000 independent living, assisted living and memory care units.

In 2022, Morgan Stanley funds backed Flint Housing, a UK social housing provider. At the time, the company said the aim was to give Flint an investment capacity of £1B. 

Morgan Stanley renamed the private market funds it raises North Haven in 2015. The name refers to a town in Maine where one of the bank’s founders had a summer house. The home's deck is where the original partners agreed to form the bank. 

Morgan Stanley declined to comment.