• The worst is behind the commercial real estate sector, according to Jon Gray of Blackstone.
• The real estate specialist believes there is a huge opportunity for investors in the sector.
• Blackstone has “deployed capital” and picked up CRE in Europe and Asia, Gray added.

The worst of the commercial real estate crisis appears to be over, said Blackstone Chairman Jon Gray.

The private equity executive gave a cautiously optimistic outlook on the commercial real estate market at a recent event hosted by Goldman Sachs.

He said the tide may be turning, with some signs in the market similar to those that signaled a low in 2009, when the commercial real estate sector was beginning to rebound from the Great Financial Crisis.

“We said publicly in January, regarding the results, that we believed commercial real estate was at rock bottom. And we continued to believe that,” Gray said. “We started getting these signals late last year, saying, look, the markets are recognizing inflation is falling. The Fed is starting to move into another area. As the cost of capital rises drop in those areas, we should go out there and get it back.

The state of the market mirrors that of 2009, when activity in the sector was just beginning to pick up after the Great Financial Crisis, Gray said.

“And the problem for investors is that they often look in the rearview mirror. So they say, ‘Real estate, oh, I have all this distressed real estate. And I don’t want to go back there.’ ,'” he said. “But if you go back to 2009, that’s when the best investments of the cycle took place. It wasn’t until 2012 that you got the clear signal from everyone.”

Blackstone has been busy “deploying capital” this year, he said, noting that the company has acquired logistics assets in Europe, such as buildings for storing and transporting goods, as well as real estate. in Asia.

“If you had invested in real estate after the financial crisis, you would have made a lot of money. And I suspect if you are an investor today, the same thing will happen,” he added.