DST offerings raised $8.41 billion in 2025, a 48.7% increase on 2024’s $5.66 billion and within touching distance of the sector’s 2022 peak of roughly $9.4 billion.
2026 has gone further. Through July, sponsors had raised approximately $5.5 billion, up 31% on the $4.2 billion raised over the same period in 2025. July alone brought in $985.1 million, the strongest month of the year. Mountain Dell Consulting’s projection is a $10 billion year, which would set a new all-time record for the space.
That is the number most people have seen. The more interesting figures sit underneath it.
The shape of the market has changed
At the end of December 2025 there were 50 sponsors running 89 active programs. By July 2026 that had grown to 59 sponsors and 110 programs, a 33% year-on-year increase in offerings.
Average time on market has collapsed from 407 days in July 2025 to 225 days, a 45% reduction. Product is moving materially faster than it was twelve months ago.
The competitive set has also shifted upmarket. Ares Real Estate Exchange leads with $1.2 billion year to date and 22.2% market share, followed by Hines at 9.8%, Blue Owl at 7.9%, ExchangeRight at 7.0% and Inland Private Capital at 5.8%. Fortress launched a multifamily DST fund in March, and Nuveen launched a vehicle allowing investors to roll gains into its non-traded REIT. Peachtree crossed $525 million cumulative in August.
Sector allocation has rotated as well. Multifamily accounted for 58% of December 2025 volume, with industrial at 14%. Through July 2026, industrial sits at 31% and multifamily at 28%. Industrial has moved from a secondary allocation to the leading one in under a year.
The regulatory backdrop is stable. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act left Section 1031 intact, which removes the policy risk that had been hanging over sponsor planning.
Now the part that determines whether sponsors actually capture the flow
We map real estate capital raising and IR professionals across the US. Within that map, 235 people are currently raising for DST strategies. This is what that population looks like.
By level
- Heads of Sales and above: 13
- EVP / MD: 17
- SVP: 58
- VP: 40
- Director: 30
- AVP: 14
- Associate, Analyst and Specialist: 39
- Level not stated: 24
Read the top of that list against the market data. There are 59 sponsors in the market and 13 people we have mapped at head-of-sales level or above who are raising DST equity. Add the EVP and MD band and you get 30 people carrying genuine national distribution leadership experience in this product.
That is the bottleneck. Every new entrant needs someone to build and run the sales effort, and the pool of people who have done it before is smaller than the number of platforms now competing for them.
The SVP band at 58 is the deepest layer, which is consistent with a market where the senior external wholesaler is the core producing role.
Movement
Since October last year we have recorded 10% movement across this population, with people moving to direct competitors or leaving for larger firms with a wider product set. That second pattern matters. As institutional managers enter the space, they are able to offer a wholesaler a DST alongside an interval fund, a non-traded REIT and a private credit sleeve. A single-product sponsor is now competing against that.
Separately, 28 people were promoted from internal to external wholesaler roles over the same period. That is roughly 12% of the mapped population, and it tells you what firms are doing when they cannot hire externally: they are promoting from the internal desk. It works, but it takes longer to reach productivity and it hollows out the internal bench.
Coverage and location
Of the 111 professionals who state their territory:
- National accounts: 34%
- West: 17%
- Multi-region: 15%
- Solo national coverage: 10%
- East: 9%
- Middle of the country: 5%
- Southeast: 5%
- Southwest: 5%
A third of this population sits in national accounts, which reflects where DST distribution is actually won. Access to the platform matters more than square mileage. The 10% covering the country solo is worth noting too, and is usually a sign of a sponsor still in the early stage of building out.
On residence
- California: 22%
- Texas: 13%
- Southeast: 10%
- Boston: 7%
- New York: 6%
More than a third of the population sits in two states. That is a function of where 1031 exchange volume originates, and it means competition for people in California and Texas is disproportionate to the size of those territories.
What this means if you are hiring
Three things follow from the data.
First, if you are a new or newly scaled entrant, the senior leadership layer is the scarcest part of the market and will not be solved by posting a role. It requires a mapped, targeted approach.
Second, the 10% movement figure is not high in absolute terms, but the direction of it is instructive. People are leaving single-product sponsors for multi-product platforms. If you are the former, your retention case needs to be built deliberately rather than assumed.
Third, the internal-to-external promotion trend gives you a second route to hiring. There is a cohort of internal wholesalers ready to step up, and they are considerably easier to secure than a proven external producer.
The capital is there and the projections point to a record year. The constraint is people.
If you are hiring into DST distribution and want help identifying the individuals who can move the needle, get in touch.
Sources: Mountain Dell 2025 full year via AltsWire · July 2026 DST sales · Bisnow on 2026 fundraising · Blue Vault on demand drivers · March 2026 DST Landscape Review · KLR on 1031 status in 2026