Two major private equity firms have announced plans to launch some first-time funds dedicated to real estate investments.

TPG Capital Management is planning its first real estate fund with a target of at least $1 billion, while KKR & Co. is preparing to market its first debt fund dedicated to real estate investments with an initial capital allotment of $500 million.

TPG’s plans were broken by The Wall Street Journal, which reported the private equity company expects to start raising money for the fund in the second half of 2013. If TPG raises the $1 billion it is targeting, it will create the second-largest initial property fund ever, trailing only the $1.6 billion that Lehman Bros. raised in 2001 with its first fund, acco