Real Estate Private Equity Associate Recruiting

I'm currently wondering what the recruiting schedule for real estate private equity associates looks like at megafund RE shops (Blackstone, Brookfield, Apollo, KKR etc). I'm going to be starting at a large fund in their RE debt group soon, and am looking to switch over to the equity side in the future. I know that regular PE firms start associate recruiting essentially right after analysts start at investment banks, and was wondering if RE associate recruiting follows the same, or a similar schedule.