The Financial Post reports in its Saturday edition that after three years of anemic transaction volumes, large real estate deals are making a comeback, according to Lowell Baron, the chief executive officer of Brookfield Asset Management's real estate business. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says the asset manager has sold $13-billion of property already this year, including major deals in the United States, Spain and Australia, in a sign that liquidity is returning even for larger portfolios (all figures U.S.). That is up from $3-billion in the first half of last year and just $2-billion in the first six months of 2023. The sales are crucial for private equity firms investing in real estate, which have struggled to dispose of assets and return capital to investors, meaning fundraising has fallen sharply as cash remains locked in older funds. "We're edging back to a more normalized rate of transactions," Mr. Baron said. "Over the last couple of years, there has been a severe lack of liquidity in the market and there haven't been larger transactions trading." The end of the low interest-rate era prompted buyers to seek higher returns from real estate while sellers clung to backward-looking valuations.