The last two years have been sluggish for capital raising, to say the least. When asked to write this article, I immediately thought back to my first days at Tishman Speyer in January 2006, a very different time.

In 2006, General Partnerships (GPs) and Limited Partnerships (LPs) alike embraced real estate, and many LPs sought to diversify their portfolios as equity markets surged. One of the most common questions that LPs would put to GPs was: “How quickly can you invest my capital?” I also experienced the extraordinary situation of a GP turning capital away; during 2006 and 2007, three Tishman Speyer fund raisings were oversubscribed, with investor commitments having to be scaled back so that we could stay within our agreed fund size.

Back to today, and nobody can accuse me of not knowing what it is like to work through a downt