Real Estate Syndication by the Numbers: 5,358 New Deals Filed With the SEC in 18 Months, a $5 Million Median Raise and a $50,000 Median Minimum

What a real estate syndication is, and the one document every deal files

In a syndication, a sponsor (also called the general partner or manager) finds a property, signs the loan and runs the business plan; passive investors (limited partners or members) supply most of the equity and receive distributions and a share of the sale profit. The sponsor is paid through fees and a promote, a larger share of profits after investors reach a preferred return. The deal is a private placement, so there is no prospectus and no SEC review.

There is one public record that every such deal raising money from outside investors is supposed to file: the Form D, “no later than 15 calendar days after the first sale” under Rule 503. It is short, but it has the numbers a passive investor rarely sees side by side: the offering amount, the minimum investment, which exemption the sponsor uses, how many investors have bought, sales commissions (Item 15), and the amount of the money raised that goes to the sponsor's own executives, directors or promoters (Item 16). The SEC publishes every Form D as quarterly data sets. We used the files from 2018 through the quarter ended June 30, 2026.

How we drew the line: original Form D filings (not amendments) in the SEC's Residential, Commercial and Other Real Estate industry groups, filed by an LLC or limited partnership, without Delaware statutory trusts (a 1031 product we cover in our DST fee analysis), opportunity zone vehicles or EB-5 immigration offerings. Real estate funds that file as "pooled investment funds" are not in it, and a few operating real estate companies are. Treat the counts as a close approximation of the private syndication market, not an exact census.

How many deals: the 2022 peak, the 2023 drop, and 2026

Source: SEC Form D data sets, 2018q1 to 2026q2; counts, medians and shares are our arithmetic. Median minimum counts only offerings that state a minimum above zero.

The cycle is visible in the filings. New syndications climbed to 4,867 in 2022 as cheap debt made deals pencil, then fell 27% to 3,535 in 2023 as interest rates rose. Counting only January to June, 2026 has 1,929 new offerings against 1,677 in 2025 (+15%), still 24% below the 2,545 of the first half of 2022 (our arithmetic). Two longer shifts run under the cycle: advertised deals under Rule 506(c) doubled their share to about 28%, and the typical minimum rose to $50,000, while fewer deals pay broker-dealers, because most sponsors now raise directly from their own investor lists and online.

The 2025-2026 deals: size and minimum investment

Source: SEC Form D data sets; bands are our arithmetic for the 5,358 offerings first filed January 2025 to June 2026. Size excludes the 518 "Indefinite" offerings; minimum excludes the 982 that state zero.

Most syndications are small: the median deal raises $5.0 million, enough equity for a mid-size apartment building, self-storage facility or retail center with a loan on top. Texas leads by issuer address with 835 offerings, then California 449, Florida 357, Georgia 313 and New York 303. By the SEC's categories, 2,267 are filed as Commercial, 1,834 as Other Real Estate and 1,257 as Residential.

Of the 3,663 offerings that report any sales by June 30, 2026, the median raised is $2.8 million from 15 investors, and the cohort reports $33.55 billion sold to 94,459 investors in total (our arithmetic; the total includes institutional funds at the top of the range). 1,866 filed before the first sale had occurred, and only 373 have been amended since, so many of these figures are a snapshot taken on day one.

Who can invest: 506(b) and 506(c)

Rule 506(b) deals (3,814 of the cohort) are, in the rule's words, “subject to limitation on manner of offering”, so they cannot advertise; besides accredited investors they may sell to no more than 35 other purchasers, each of whom must have “such knowledge and experience in financial and business matters that he is capable of evaluating the merits and risks of the prospective investment.” 963 offerings checked the box saying non-accredited investors have bought or may buy, and 471 report at least one. Rule 506(c) deals (1,504) are “not subject to limitation on manner of offering”, so they may advertise on podcasts, websites and social media, but “all purchasers” must be accredited investors and the sponsor “shall take reasonable steps to verify” it. If you are not accredited, a syndication you saw advertised is not open to you; the platforms that accept non-accredited investors are a different market.

What the form says the sponsor takes up front

The Form D does not show the promote or the ongoing asset-management fee, but it shows two up-front numbers. Sales commissions (paid to broker-dealers) appear on only 275 offerings (5%), with a median of 5.0% of the offering where reported. Payments to related persons, meaning the sponsor's own executives, directors or promoters, appear on 1,273 offerings (24%), a median of 3.9%, and 10% or more on 251. Some sponsors explain the figure in the clarification field:

Source: Item 13 and Item 16 of each Form D (accession numbers in the dataset); percentages are our arithmetic. Item 16 is often marked as an estimate.

HC Bristol Gresham's filing puts it plainly: “Approximately $1,000,000 will be paid to the issuer's manager affiliate.” RCC Village at Lakeline's says “The Manager receives 2% of the offering proceeds upon the closing of the offering as an acquisition fee.” Neither number is improper in itself; both are money that leaves the deal before the property earns anything, and three-quarters of the cohort report zero here, which more often means the fees are paid at the property level or out of the loan than that there are none.

What a reader can do with this

• Look up the deal's Form D before you wire money. Search the LLC's exact name in EDGAR company search. Check the offering amount against the pitch, the minimum, 506(b) or 506(c), and Items 15 and 16. If there is no Form D at all for a deal that has already taken money, ask why.
• Ask for the fee schedule in dollars: acquisition, asset management, financing, construction, disposition and the promote, as a share of your equity, not of the offering. The Form D is a floor, not the full cost.
• Compare against the medians above. A $50,000 minimum and a $5 million raise are typical; a 10%-plus related-party take on the form is in the top fifth of deals that report one.
• Know the exit. A syndication has no redemption program; you are in until the sponsor sells or refinances, often 5-7 years or longer. Our red-flag checklist and our list of platforms for accredited investors cover the alternatives with some liquidity.

FAQ

Sources: U.S. SEC Form D data sets, quarterly files 2018q1 to 2026q2 (FORMDSUBMISSION, ISSUERS and OFFERING tables), the individual Form D filings quoted, and 17 CFR 230.503 and 230.506 as published by the Legal Information Institute, retrieved October 5, 2026. Counts, medians, shares, bands and year-over-year changes are our arithmetic; the population and exclusions are described above and in the dataset. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.