Singapore’s GIC Pte is in talks to sell its stake in US landlord Yes! Communities Inc. to Brookfield Asset Management in what could be one of the biggest exits for the sovereign wealth fund in years, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
The entire portfolio could be valued at more than US$10 billion ($12.84 billion), according to the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private negotiations. Talks are ongoing and there is no guarantee of a deal.
GIC invested in Yes! Communities in August 2016 when it acquired a 71% equity interest with another unidentified global investor. This transaction valued Yes! at over US$2 billion, people familiar said at the time.
“If materialized at the mentioned price, this would be the largest ever commercial exit of a SWF,” said Diego Lopez, Global SWF managing director. “For GIC, it would provide significant liquidity and an opportunity to reduce dependency to the US real estate market.”
Brookfield and GIC declined to comment. The Financial Times earlier reported the talks between the companies.
The sale comes as GIC expects a slowdown in the second half of the year alongside rising inflation and uncertainty driven by Singapore’s domestic and geopolitical pressures. The fund’s annualized five-year return rose to 6.1% in nominal US dollar terms, up from 4.4% a year earlier. GIC doesn’t publish yearly performance figures.
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GIC, which is one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, does not publicise its assets under management but Global SWF estimates the firm manages assets worth US$936 billion. If completed, the transaction would come despite GIC saying in July that real estate valuations were potentially bottoming, presenting attractive investment opportunities.
While the firm said that 13% of its assets were real estate as of March 31, 2024, the investment giant has ceased reporting how much of its portfolio is made up of property. Its most recent figures show that “real assets”, a category the firm created that largely includes real estate, made up 23% of its total portfolio as of March 31, 2025.
The purchase of Yes! would also count among the largest acquisitions for Brookfield, which oversees more than US$1 trillion.
Denver-based Yes! operates almost 300 sites in the US, mostly in the Southwest, Midwest and Southeast. The firm was exploring an initial public offering sometime in 2025, Bloomberg News reported in December.
Brookfield’s global real estate portfolio includes apartments, warehouses, offices and other property types. In 2020, the alternative asset manager acquired a controlling stake in single-family landlord Conrex and raised US$300 million for a vehicle to acquire houses, Bloomberg News reported at the time.
The company has been bolstering its residential business. Last year, a Brookfield Asset Management fund snapped up an US$893 million portfolio of student-housing properties at schools including Texas A&M University.
In a July interview with Bloomberg TV, Brookfield’s chief executive officer of real estate Lowell Baron said the manager’s “highest conviction is still rental housing.”
That includes all forms of rental housing including student housing, Baron said. There are opportunities to buy from sellers that have to get liquidity, facing debt maturity issues and seeing valuations of these assets coming down, he added.
