Alyssa Renews Dai-Ichi Life Partnership with Deal for 669 Japanese Apartments

Tokyo-based investment manager Alyssa Partners has expanded its partnership with one of Japan’s largest insurers through the purchase of a set of 10 Japanese residential buildings.

Alyssa acquired the 669-unit portfolio on behalf of The Dai-Ichi Life Insurance Company, its second such buy for Japan’s third-largest insurer by revenue, according to a statement on Friday, with the properties spanning 21,000 square metres (226,042 square feet) of gross floor area in the cities of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.

“We are very excited to expand our existing partnership with Dai-Ichi Life to a total of 22 properties with a GFA of 52,700 square metres,” said Chedli Boujellabia, managing partner, chief executive and co-CIO of Alyssa Partners. “This is an encouraging vote of confidence from a top domestic institutional investor and we look forward to continuing to grow this key mandate.”

The deal extends a relationship first established in late 2023 when Alyssa teamed up Dai-Ichi Life to buy a set of 12 stabilised apartment buildings across four cities, with the fund manager having now made three major Japanese residential acquisitions in the past three months, in addition to picking up its first logistics assets in the country.

Growing Portfolio

All 10 of the stabilised multi-family buildings are located within 10 minutes or less walking distance from subway or rail stations, according to Alyssa, with the properties averaging less than six years in age.

Further details regarding the portfolio and the transaction were not provided.

“This latest portfolio acquisition takes our total residential AUM to close to JPY 200 billion and more than 6,000 apartment units across the major Japanese metropolitan cities, reinforcing Alyssa Partners’ leading position in this asset class,” Boujellabia said.

In their previous acquisition in December 2023, Alyssa and Dai-Ichi Life, which had JPY 67.5 trillion ($456 billion) in assets on its balance sheet at the end of 2024, paid JPY 20 billion to acquire 770 homes spanning over 31,000 square metres. That portfolio included properties in the cities of Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Kobe.

Home and Away

Alyssa is growing its relationship with the Japanese insurer as it continues to rack up acquisitions through partnerships with global investors.

Last month the company announced that it had acquired a rental apartment building in central Tokyo’s Minato ward together with Malaysian conglomerate LGB, with market sources indicating that the partners had paid over JPY 10 billion for the tower.

That February deal came after Alyssa said in December that it had tied up with an unnamed global investor to acquire 767 apartments in the cities of Tokyo, Osaka and Kobe. Sources who spoke to Mingtiandi indicated that the portfolio changed hands for close to JPY 30 billion.

Also in December, Hong Kong-listed JD Property said that it had teamed with Alyssa to acquire a pair of warehouses in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo and Nagoya. The logistics properties had an appraised value of JPY 35 billion, according to market sources, with the seller identified as GLP.

Residential Remains in Favour

Alyssa and Dai-Ichi made their latest purchase as Japanese residential properties continue to be a preferred asset class among institutional investors.

In February rental apartment platform Dash Living said it had partnered with BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and US multi-family giant Greystar to expand its Japan portfolio to 19 locations.

That deal came after regional residential investor and operator Weave Living said in November that it was working with KKR to assemble a portfolio of more than 3,000 homes in Japan. That venture includes a seed portfolio of 11 properties yielding 439 units which Weave had acquired and stabilised over the preceding 12 months.

During that same month, Goldman Sachs agreed to acquire an apartment complex in Fukuoka from CapitaLand Ascott Trust for $89 million.

In October, Chicago-based Heitman announced that it had completed a purchase of three Osaka apartment buildings under its global core-plus strategy. Also in October, M&G Real Estate said it had raised $250 million for an Asia residential strategy, with that venture seeded with a $68 million Osaka portfolio.