Morgan Stanley, a top Wall Street firm, has raised an $8 billion real estate fund through its property arm to focus on North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Morgan Stanley said the fund had buying power of more than $30 billion. It invested about 20 percent of the total equity and said the fund's portfolio would include real estate assets and companies from developed and emerging markets including China, India, Russia and Latin America.

Target developed markets include Japan, Western Europe and Australia.

Morgan Stanley has been an active investor in Asia's booming property markets, targeting Japan, China and more recently, India.

In April, it agreed to buy 13 hotels and two property management units from Japanese airline All Nippon Airways Co. for $2.4 billion in Asia's biggest hotel deal.

Morgan Stanley, which issued a statement late on Wednesday night in New York, called it the largest ever real estate fund, although sources familiar with the matter told Reuters in February that U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group was raising a $10 billion property fund.

Morgan Stanley Real Estate, which focuses on investing, banking and lending in the property sector, has bought $83.5 billion of real estate assets globally through its funds.

It also closed a $1.75 billion U.S. fund last year.

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