Morgan Stanley’s real estate investment division has raised $2.9B for a new opportunity fund, one of the largest fund-raises of this real estate cycle.

This was the first close for the North Haven Real Estate Fund XI Global, PERE reported. The fund-raise was disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last week.

The fund is targeting a total equity raise of $4B, PERE reported, which would be almost a third more than the $3.1B it raised for its tenth opportunity fund in 2021. That fund has called about 70% of its capital and made a 10% internal rate of return so far.

Bisnow revealed that Morgan Stanley was raising money for a new fund in February last year, and raising close to $3B in a year is relatively quick work in this environment.

Fund managers have struggled to sell assets and return money to investors, making it difficult for them to commit new capital.

If Morgan Stanley closes this fund with $4B or more of equity, it will put it in rare air. Blackstone and Brookfield are among the small pool of investors to reach that level since interest rates spiked in 2022.

Morgan Stanley’s opportunity funds invest globally, but in the past decade, they have had a focus on the U.S. and Europe.

The investor is working on one very large deal in the UK: the purchase of a major London multifamily portfolio being sold by affordable housing provider L&Q for around £1B. It is one of several investors circling a similar £750M portfolio being sold by another regulated housing provider.

In the U.S., it teamed up with student accommodation specialist GSA in November to buy a $1B portfolio from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Landmark Properties. A month later, it bought a last-mile logistics facility near Los Angeles International Airport for $211M.