Real estate investment manager LaSalle Investment Management’s open-ended real estate debt strategy has secured around $700m (£517m) in capital commitments from institutional investors.

The strategy is managed by LaSalle’s US debt team, which has completed over $6bn in first mortgage transactions over the past 20 years.

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The strategy has attracted commitments from institutional investors including pension funds and insurance companies across the US, Australia, Canada and Asia.

Since the open-ended strategy began originating investments in March, the LaSalle team has originated and closed more than $400m in loans and expects to close an additional $300m in the third quarter.

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“With volatility over the last few years and current uncertainty driven by policy decisions and geopolitics, we have seen increasing demand from both borrowers and credit investors, creating a strong deployment environment at attractive basis and compelling risk adjusted returns,” said Brad Gries, head of Americas at LaSalle Investment Management.

“We continue to believe there is a permanent place for real estate credit in diversified investor portfolio construction.”

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“With the capital raised, we are well-positioned to source loans for light transitional properties across the country,” added Craig Oram, portfolio manager at LaSalle Investment Management.

“We see tremendous demand for capital among middle market borrowers, and our disciplined approach to ground-up underwriting and integrated origination strategy allows us to provide needed liquidity in this dynamic market environment.”