The advent of real estate funds structured in the same way as private equity funds has shaken up the global real estate industry over recent years. Some of the sponsors in this segment of the market are specialist real estate investors; others are affiliated to sponsors that adopt a variety of strategies including LBO’s and hedge funds, for example. Some invest in pure private equity portfolios; others handle the real estate aspects of investments that also include operating businesses, often through propco/opco structures. The financing, deal structuring and dynamics of these investments show both similarities with mainstream private equity equivalents and also critical differences that the transactional lawyer needs to understand in order to operate effectively in this growing segment of the industry. Blackstone are industry leaders and in this panel the lawyer who is in charge of the legal aspects of their real estate business globally talks through the issues with the GCs from two platform companies.