JPMorgan Pulls Plug on $1.4B Real Estate Fund After Losses

JPMorgan Asset Management is winding down a flagship real estate fund that survived the Great Recession and pandemic-era volatility, but couldn’t outrun the industry’s latest reckoning.

The investment banking giant plans to liquidate its JP Morgan US Real Estate Income and Growth Fund, according to Bisnow. The 24-year-old core-plus vehicle held roughly $1.4 billion in assets at the end of 2025, according to documents tied to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation and first reported by IPE Real Assets.

The fund, launched in 2002, carried a portfolio split across industrial, multifamily and office properties, the latter of which accounts for about 16 percent of holdings. That exposure appears to have weighed on returns as higher interest rates, sluggish office demand and frozen deal markets battered commercial real estate values over the past several years.

“As a fiduciary, we believe this decision is in the best interests of the fund’s investors,” a JPMorgan Asset Management spokesperson said in a statement, adding that the liquidation would proceed “thoughtfully and deliberately” with a focus on maximizing value.

The unwind is expected to take as long as three years, according to consultant Meketa Investment. The timeline underscores a broader challenge facing institutional real estate owners: selling assets in a market where buyers and sellers remain far apart on pricing.

Performance at the fund had been deteriorating for years. Documents from the North Dakota Retirement Investment Office show the North Dakota Legacy Fund’s $170 million stake lost 1.7 percent in 2025 after falling 3.7 percent the previous year. Over the last three years, the value of that investment declined nearly 10 percent. Returns only barely stayed positive over a five-year stretch.

The closure lands at an awkward moment for commercial real estate fundraising. Investor appetite has started to rebound after sluggish years, particularly among the industry’s largest managers. Global real estate funds raised $172 billion last year, up 13 percent year over year, according to a recent S&P Global report citing With Intelligence data.

But capital markets are still fighting gravity. Treasury yields remain elevated, financing costs are high and transaction momentum appears shaky. After commercial property sales jumped 25 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, April volume fell 33 percent to $24.7 billion.

— Holden Walter-Warner