Commercial property investors are getting back into the game, or at least strongly considering it, after the coronavirus pandemic paused property sales this spring, new CBRE data shows.

In July, the number of signed confidentiality agreements between potential buyers and sellers was down 17% compared with the same month in 2019, reports CBRE Deal Flow, the company's digital marketing platform for property sales. That compares with a 74% drop in April and May.

Though such agreements are only a step toward a final sale, a recovering volume points to preliminary investor interest in property deals.

The number of confidentiality agreements signed during the second quarter of 2020 was 40% of the average total for the previous two years, with agreements involving industrial and multifamily properties more likely to be signed than any other property type. Investors also asked for lower prices, CBRE reported, as they expect values to decline by as much as 20% by the end of 2020.

While investors ink preliminary deals, they are also amassing the cash they will need to finalize investments.

Real estate investment funds raised about $38B during the second quarter of 2020, up from about $20B during the same quarter in 2019, according to Institutional Real Estate Inc. Eleven of the 26 funds tracked by IREI raised more than $1B during the quarter.

Sixth Street Partners has obtained $10B recently for its flagship fund, Tao, which will soon be capped at a total of about $24B, making it one of the largest investment pools ever raised, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing anonymous sources. The fund is a broad-spectrum investor, including making major deals in commercial real estate. In August, the parent of shoe retailers DSW received a $250M loan from Sixth Street, with Tao participating in the transaction.

Nuveen Real Estate, an investment arm of TIAA, has raised $500M for two of its funds, U.S. Cities Multifamily Fund and U.S. Cities Industrial Fund. The focus of the new capital is property types less affected by the pandemic than others, such as industrial and apartments, Real Estate Weekly reports.