Ascent Real Estate Investors (“ARE”) is a private equity real estate investment manager focused on China. We specialize in making, managing and realizing real estate investments in China on behalf of global institutional capital, and delivering attractive investment returns.

ARE was founded in January 2019 as a result of the spin-off of global private equity giant The Carlyle Group’s China real estate investment management practice, which then consisted of equity capital under management of US$470 million.

Before that, the ARE team had been making real estate investments in China for Carlyle since 2004. To date, the ARE team has completed 44 real estate investments in China across the office, logistics, retail and residential real estate sectors with aggregate capitalization of US$5.8 billion and aggregate equity capital investment of $2.0 billion. 32 of them have been realized with attractive returns and zero investment loss record, making us one of the most experienced and successful private equity real estate teams in China.

ARE’s founding team consists of the entire Carlyle China real estate team before the spin-off – seven investment professionals who had an average tenure of eight years with Carlyle.

ARE is owned and led by Mr. Han Chen, who joined Carlyle in 2004 and served as the head of its China real estate investment management business for the next 14 years. Han has more than 20 years of experience across real estate investing and investment banking, and is a well-respected figure in the industry.

Meet Our People

Our investment approach is characterized by:

Thematic “top-down” sector and market selection anchored on deep understanding:

The ARE team has a deep understanding of all factors affecting real estate investment returns in China, including macroeconomic trends, capital liquidity, submarket fundamentals, structuring considerations and effective asset management. At the same time, we have managed capital on behalf of more than 20 institutional investors since 2004 and understand what they seek from China real estate. In the near future, we intend to focus on sectors which we believe are poised to benefit the most from structural changes in the Chinese economy.

Meticulous “bottom up” deal sourcing enabled by local presence:

We apply our deep market understanding and leverage our extensive network of industry relationships accumulated over 15 years’ of on-ground presence to identify, secure, structure and execute the most attractive investment opportunities for our clients. We are highly selective in sourcing, and seek to avoid competitive processes which typically diminish value.

Hands-on Asset Management:

Throughout an investment’s holding period, we tirelessly conduct extensive asset management work to unlock maximal value in each property. We draw upon our rich experience in formulating and managing the various development, repositioning and leasing programs for our 44 past investments.

Disciplined Exit Management:

We have a consistent track record of exploiting typically short windows of excess market liquidity in China to crystallize our investment results at their peak.