First Eagle Investments Introduces Real Estate Debt Fund Offering Access To Credit Opportunities

First Eagle Investments is pleased to announce the recent launch of the First Eagle Real Estate Debt Fund (A-2 Shares: FNRLX; A-3 Shares: FIRLX; A-4 Shares: FRRLX; I Shares: FERLX), managed by Napier Park Global Capital, a First Eagle Investments Company.

The Fund seeks to provide risk-adjusted returns and current income by investing across “private and public real estate debt markets, with a focus on investment opportunities in residential real estate.”

The Fund is structured as a closed-end interval fund and intends “to elect to be taxed as a real estate investment trust (REIT), providing investors with advantaged tax treatment3 in an investor-friendly wrapper.”

Rajesh Agarwal, Portfolio Manager of the Real Estate Debt Fund.

“We believe that long-term secular drivers such as demographic tailwinds, a persistent housing supply shortage and the ongoing need for financing present a strong, differentiated opportunity in the residential real estate market. Recognizing the regulatory headwinds facing conventional lenders that historically served this space, we see a durable opportunity for alternative credit firms like ourselves to provide much-needed capital to the residential real estate market and potentially generate attractive risk-adjusted returns and current income for our investors.”

The Real Estate Debt Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing in “cash-flow generating, short-duration assets across residential and residential-related real estate lending markets—and in doing so, provide access to a range of private and public credit opportunities that are not typically available in retail-oriented investment products.”

In terms of private credit opportunities, the Fund will invest in, among others, residential transitional loans, which are “short-term loans made for the acquisition and renovation of residential properties, and land-banking transactions, which provide off-balance-sheet financing to reputable and creditworthy homebuilders to manage land inventory for new-home development.”

On the public credit side, the Fund in the near term “will invest in various public structured credit securities backed by diverse pools of underlying mortgage loans, such as agency and non-agency mortgage-backed securities and credit-risk transfer securities.”

Leveraging the scale and infrastructure of the Napier Park credit platform as well as its “extensive experience, the Fund’s investment team intends to actively manage the Fund’s portfolio through dynamic reallocation among private and public credit investments through multiple market cycles.”

Jon Dorfman, Managing Principal and Chief Investment Officer of Napier Park:

“US housing prices have remained elevated despite the rise in mortgage rates since the beginning of the Federal Reserve’s rate-hike cycle. We believe this strength in housing reflects a structural shift in the market that began with the global financial crisis and was exacerbated by the dislocations of Covid-19, which contributed to a long-term, secular shortage of available housing. We also believe it created a lasting investment opportunity in residential real estate credit for nimble, experienced capital providers like Napier Park.”

Frank Riccio, Head of US Wealth Solutions said:

“We’re excited to introduce the First Eagle Real Estate Debt Fund, managed by our highly experienced colleagues at Napier Park. As investors increasingly look beyond traditional corporate direct lending, this Fund offers access to the residential real estate debt market—a large and diverse segment of the asset-based lending space. For advisors seeking a source of current income for their clients, the Fund’s REIT tax status offers potential tax-advantaged income3 within an interval fund structure, making it a compelling and differentiated option. It also provides an opportunity to expand real estate exposure beyond the typical non-traded equity REITs and debt investments focused on commercial real estate.”

The Real Estate Debt Fund is First Eagle’s “third interval fund and the first managed by Napier Park, which First Eagle acquired in 2022.”

It joins the First Eagle Tactical Municipal Opportunities Fund (Class I: FTAIX), which was “launched earlier this month, and the First Eagle Credit Opportunities Fund (Class A: FECAX: Class A-2 Shares: FCAAX): Class I:FECRX), which has approximately $921 million in total assets (as of March 31, 2025) since its 2020 launch.”

First Eagle Investments is an independent, privately owned investment management firm headquartered in New York with “approximately $152 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2025.”

Dedicated to providing prudent stewardship of client assets, the firm focuses on “active, fundamental and benchmark-agnostic investing, with a strong emphasis on downside mitigation.”