Private equity secondaries market 2026: volume, pricing, sellers

The private equity secondaries market set another record in the first half of 2026. Jefferies' Global Secondary Market Review counted $118bn of volume, up 15% on the $103bn recorded in H1 2025, and Evercore, Campbell Lutyens and Lazard each reported between $120bn and $124bn. GP-led transactions were roughly half of activity for the first time across most data sets. Average pricing for LP portfolios held at 87% of NAV. Pensions and sovereign wealth funds were the largest sellers, and all four advisers expect full-year 2026 volume to exceed $250bn.

Volume: four estimates, one direction

The advisers measure the market differently, so the headline numbers vary. The table below sets out the H1 2026 figures each published.

Sources: Jefferies, Evercore, Campbell Lutyens and Lazard, all published in July or August 2026.

Full-year 2025 was itself a record. Jefferies put it at $240bn, Evercore at $226bn, Campbell Lutyens at $225bn and Lazard at $233bn. Lazard's trailing twelve-month figure to June 2026 was about $260bn.

LP-led versus GP-led

The faster-growing half of the market is GP-led. Jefferies reported GP-led volume up 32% year on year, Evercore 35%. LP-led volume grew 4% in Evercore's count and fell 8% in Campbell Lutyens' count, which treats preferred equity as a separate category.

Within GP-led deals, continuation vehicles dominate. Jefferies attributes 89% of GP-led volume to continuation vehicles, with single-asset vehicles making up 68% of them. Evercore recorded single-asset continuation vehicle volume of about $34bn, up 88% year on year. Lazard noted that around 27% of GP-led transactions failed or were paused in H1 2026, which is a reminder that announced processes do not all close. The mechanics and the decision facing an existing investor are covered in GP-led continuation funds, explained for LPs.

Who is selling

Jefferies breaks LP-led supply down by seller type. Pensions and sovereign wealth funds accounted for 48% of H1 2026 LP volume, fund-of-funds and secondary funds 27%, endowments and foundations 16%, family offices 5% and financial institutions 4%. Campbell Lutyens shows a similar picture: public and corporate pensions 28%, asset managers 21%, sovereign wealth funds 20%, financial institutions 12%, endowments and foundations 10% and family offices 4%, down from 8% in 2025.

Sovereign wealth funds are the notable movers. Evercore recorded their share of LP-led volume rising from 12% to 21%. North American sellers made up 65% of Evercore's LP-led volume and EMEA sellers 31%, up from 24%. Evercore also noted that 88% of LP-led volume was intermediated by an adviser in a multi-bidder process.

The selling is driven by slow distributions rather than distress. Ropes & Gray's H1 2026 update puts annual distribution yields near 10% against a long-term average of about 25%. The background to that gap is set out in the distributions drought in data.

Pricing and available capital

Jefferies' average LP portfolio price of 87% of NAV was unchanged on the second half of 2025. Buyout and infrastructure interests priced at 91%, credit at 89%, venture at 79% and real estate at 68%. Campbell Lutyens reported an average LP-led discount of 13.3%, with evergreen buyers paying 92.1% of NAV against 86.7% for the market as a whole. A fuller breakdown is in secondary pricing by strategy.

Buyers are not short of capital, but the cushion is thinner. Jefferies counted $290bn of dedicated available capital at the end of H1 2026, down from $327bn at the end of 2025, a 1.2x overhang on trailing volume. Evercore's narrower measure of dry powder was $194bn, down 10% in the year to date, with a further $154bn of fundraising targeted for H2 2026. Deferred payment structures remain common: Ropes & Gray reports that about a third of LP-led deals include deferred consideration, most settling within 12 months.

For a family office, the data points to a liquid and competitive market for diversified buyout exposure and a thinner one for venture and real estate, with pricing that has stabilised rather than recovered to par.