Six REIT take-privates were announced in 2026 before the calendar reached May. Roughly $20 billion in REIT buyout transactions closed or were announced during the first quarter alone. Brookfield Asset Management acquired Peakstone Realty Trust for $1.2 billion in February. Ares Management purchased Whitestone REIT for $1.7 billion in April. Blue Owl Capital’s $2.4 billion acquisition of Sila Realty Trust, announced April 20, was the largest healthcare-focused deal in the group.
A pattern that clear (multiple firms, multiple billions, multiple sectors) points to something broader than any single transaction. Large alternative asset managers are seeing opportunities in publicly traded REITs that the public market itself has apparently missed.
What’s Driving the Take-Private Wave
Public REITs have traded at persistent discounts to private market valuations through much of 2025 and into 2026. When a portfolio of properties trades on an exchange, its share price absorbs factors that have nothing to do with the buildings themselves: sector rotation, interest rate expectations, index fund rebalancing. Private buyers evaluating the same assets look at tenant quality, lease terms, occupancy, and cash flow.
Large alternative asset managers see an opportunity to acquire portfolios below replacement cost, take them private, and operate them without the quarter-to-quarter scrutiny and share price volatility of public markets. Blue Owl Capital, with more than $307 billion in AUM, has the permanent capital vehicles to hold these assets indefinitely without needing an exit timeline dictated by fund maturities.
Blue Owl Capital’s Sila Deal Within the Broader Context
At $2.4 billion, the Sila acquisition is the largest healthcare-focused REIT take-private announced this cycle. Sila will become a privately held entity within Blue Owl’s Real Assets platform. It joins an existing portfolio of net lease, digital infrastructure, and real estate credit assets. The deal expands Blue Owl Capital’s sector coverage into healthcare, a category the firm’s leadership has described as “both resilient and essential.”
Once closed, Sila’s shares will de-register under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and stop trading on the NYSE. The company will no longer file quarterly earnings or face public market pricing pressures. When multiple institutional buyers are pursuing the same playbook simultaneously, the trend is driven by pricing rather than coincidence. Public REIT discounts created the window; Blue Owl Capital and its peers are walking through it.
