(HedgeCo.Net) As the alternative investment industry enters 2026, one theme towers above all others: repricing. After more than a decade of low interest rates that inflated asset values across private equity, real estate, venture capital, and credit, the market is adjusting to a fundamentally different cost-of-capital environment. This shift is not a short-term disruption — it is a structural reset that will redefine how alternative assets are valued, financed, and allocated.
Throughout 2025, allocators grew increasingly cautious as higher-for-longer interest rate expectations took hold. In 2026, those concerns crystallize into action. Capital deployment is becoming more selective, underwriting assumptions more conservative, and return expectations more realistic.
Private equity firms are already adjusting models to reflect reduced leverage, longer holding periods, and greater reliance on operational value creation. Managers like Blackstone have emphasized discipline, signaling a pivot away from aggressive multiple expansion strategies that thrived in the zero-rate era.
Real assets and infrastructure are also undergoing a recalibration. Assets once marketed as inflation hedges are now being stress-tested under higher financing costs and regulatory risk. Meanwhile, hedge funds are benefiting from dispersion, as repricing creates winners and losers across asset classes.
In 2026, the great repricing will reward managers who understand capital structure mechanics, downside risk, and liquidity management — while punishing those still anchored to outdated assumptions.