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Private Real Estate — Debt

Debt investing forms a key cornerstone of our history. We have been active in the debt market since our firm’s formation. As a multi-disciplined firm, Heitman believes it is in a unique position to seek to provide insight and strategic investment expertise to a range of clients seeking senior and mezzanine debt investment opportunities, including insurance companies, pension funds, and banks.

  • Process and strategy

    We believe our team's real estate experience combined with our long-standing history of managing debt investments for institutional investors allows the firm to be highly effective and responsive. Through the execution of our strategies, we strive to create value for our investors. Heitman’s investment process has been developed over the firm’s 50 years of participation in the real estate industry. Our firm aims to possess the full range of investment advisory capabilities and provide all of these resources to our clients. Ultimately, the underlying real estate drives outcomes within the portfolio. With resources and processes developed and enhanced over several decades of underwriting both real estate equity and debt across multiple real estate cycles, we believe we are uniquely qualified to understand and underwrite the risks inherent in investing in real estate debt.

  • Extensive experience

    Our debt investment professionals have applied experience in public and private debt, acquisition, disposition, and securitization, as well as property and asset management. Our debt investment team taps into the insights and expertise of Heitman's complementary business units. We believe the active management of our in-house asset management and loan administration professionals help us generate the desired outcome of our clients. Our professionals have invested across multiple economic recessions, periods of property market decline, and periods of recovery and expansion. While history never repeats itself exactly, we believe that knowledge of past cycles gives predictive power, which translates into sound, forward-looking investment ideas.

  • Investment philosophy

    Heitman's philosophy for debt investments in real estate closely resembles that of our private equity investments. Our process considers the fundamentals of a property and its sponsor seeking financing. We focus on the main characteristics of an investment, as well as any asset or market inefficiencies. We also conduct extensive risk management, both during the underwriting and asset management of an investment. We strive to achieve our clients’ investment objectives by adhering to sound real estate investment principles, and we add value by applying:

  • ANALYSIS

    Our debt professionals focus on developing strategies, understanding market conditions, and influencing every step of the investment process with in-depth research.

  • DISCIPLINE

    We seek to be strategic in our investment process, identifying and pricing opportunities that we believe are appropriate for the given stage of the market cycle.

  • LEADERSHIP

    We seek to leverage the extensive expertise gained across multiple cycles to anticipate opportunities and recognize risk.

Global Assets Under Management

  • 5.8

    Billion in assets under management

    USD as of September 30, 2024

Throughout our 50 years of experience investing in real estate debt, we believe we’ve learned what works.

As active participants in the industry, we seek to anticipate and capitalize on market trends for our investors. We implement three primary strategies:

Core/structured senior

This type of strategy focuses on a diversified portfolio of senior, first mortgage loans. secured by high-quality properties.  Returns generally focus on  current income with low volatility.

 

Value-added/mezzanine

Value added debt strategies focus on  higher yielding, fixed-income alternatives produced by structured debt instruments or mezzanine loans secured by property.

 

Opportunistic/high-leveraged debt

An opportunistic strategy seeks high-return profiles. These investments can be highly leveraged and may include acquisitions of nonperforming loan pools or unrated securitized debt instruments.

 

For more information on how to access these solutions, please visit the Strategies page.

We listen to our clients and tailor our approach to provide them with the level of real estate debt exposure that suits their investment needs.

Separate account

Our experienced investment team works with investors to customize their separate account portfolios to meet their objectives. Heitman can manage accounts across the risk/return spectrum, targeting markets throughout the United States. We take into account your investment guidelines while executing the best portfolio for you.

 

Commingled funds

Heitman’s private debt team has experience managing commingled funds.  These vehicles allow investors to pool their money with others to make investments in assets. A fund may provide an investor access to a diverse portfolio at a smaller commitment level than that of a separate account.

 

For detailed information on these investment strategies, please visit the Solutions page.