Non-Traded BDCs Show Parallels to REIT Downturn in 2022-2023
Shrewsbury, New Jersey, February 26, 2026 – Robert A. Stanger & Company, Inc., a nationally recognized leader in non-listed alternative investment products, has published its January 2026 issue of The Stanger Market Pulse, complete with fundraising data of all alternative investments offered via the retail pipeline. These include public non-traded REITs, public non-traded BDCs, interval funds, non-traded preferred stocks, Delaware statutory trusts (“DSTs”), opportunity zone funds, private BDCs, private REITs and other private placements including infrastructure and private equity offerings.
Alternative Investment fundraising for January 2026 totaled approximately $14.1 billion, a 27% drop from December 2025. Business development companies led early-year fundraising with $3.2 billion, narrowly surpassing interval funds at $3.1 billion, while tender offer funds followed at $2.6 billion. After publicly registered and private placement BDCs saw a year-end slowdown in monthly fundraising and increased investor demand for redemptions, their sales began 2026 down nearly 40% as compared to December 2025 and down just under 49% from their all-time monthly high of $6.2 billion raised in March 2025.
According to Kevin T. Gannon, Chairman and CEO of Stanger, “Despite a record-breaking $63 billion of BDC capital formation in 2025, we saw signs of a new market dynamic taking shape in Q4 – monthly sales slowed, redemptions accelerated, and total returns began to soften. January data suggests this trend has continued into the new year, as the BDC sector seemingly begins to navigate a familiar path seen in non-traded REITs during the 2022-2023 downturn. Just as we saw money flow away from REITs and into BDCs previously, Stanger believes alternatives are beginning to enter a hairpin turn with capital shifting away from private credit. We are now forecasting an approximately 40% year-over-year decline in BDC capital formation for 2026 similar to the 65% year-over-year dip experienced by REITs from 2022 to 2023.”
*Source: Robert A. Stanger & Company, Inc. and Mountain Dell Consulting
Fundraising in non-traded REITs and DSTs opened the year with January fundraising totaling $593 million for publicly registered non-traded REITs, $667 million for private placement REITs, and $672 million for DSTs*. This is a 23% year-over-year jump from their January 2025 combined total.
“The REIT downturn in 2023 fueled new and innovative solutions,” added Gannon. “BREIT’s $4.5 billion deal with the University of California in 2023 provided liquidity during the REIT redemption surge and stabilized investor confidence. Innovative responses are already emerging for BDCs, with Blue Owl's recent announcement of a special distribution equivalent to 30% of NAV in lieu of reinstating tender offers, signaling a shift in focus to accelerated investor liquidity. Stanger applauds Blue Owl’s innovation.”
As published in the January 2026 edition of The Stanger Market Pulse, the Top Twenty Sponsors by year-to-date gross fundraising are summarized in the table below:
"The ongoing dynamics in BDCs underscore the cyclical nature of alternatives, but the ability to meet redemptions through strategic measures has historically propelled growth and sustained resilience in the broader space," noted Randy Sweetman, Executive Managing Director at Stanger. “Across three of its BDCs, Blue Owl is selling $1.4 billion of direct lending investments at 99.7% of par value, as BDC sponsors work to meet the nearly 200% rise in redemption requests from Q3 to Q4 2025.”
To request a copy of The Stanger Market Pulse or for further information on all available Stanger Publications, please contact:
Gregory R. DiSalvo
732.389.3600
gdisalvo@rastanger.com
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About Robert A. Stanger & Co., Inc.
Robert A. Stanger & Co., Inc., founded in 1978, is a nationally recognized investment banking firm specializing in providing investment banking, financial advisory, fairness opinion and asset and securities valuation services to partnerships, real estate investment trusts and real estate advisory and management companies in support of strategic planning, capital formation and financings, mergers, acquisitions, reorganizations, and consolidations.
Stanger is also well known for its industry leading publications: The Stanger Report, a nationally recognized comprehensive report focused on non-traded REIT and BDC investing, including aggregate market statistics, total returns by company and total return indices, fee structure comparisons, and profiles of current offerings; The Stanger Market Pulse, a monthly deep-dive into alternative investment fundraising; The Stanger Chairman’s Report, focused on NAV REIT and non-traded BDC sales and redemptions; The Stanger Closed-End Fund Report, focused on non-traded interval fund and tender offer fund investing, Stanger Privates, a quarterly publication focused on Private Placement REITs and BDCs exclusively available to Stanger Institutional Access subscribers; and The Alt Street Journal, a weekly newsletter providing an update on industry activities.
For More Information:
Kevin T. Gannon | Chairman & CEO | (732) 389-3600
Robert A. Stanger & Co., Inc.
1129 Broad Street, Suite 201
Shrewsbury, NJ 07702
www.rastanger.com
Member: SIPC
