Korea’s IGIS Ties Up With ACRE to Launch $300M Korea Rental Housing Platform

A unit of South Korea’s IGIS Asset Management has teamed with Asia Capital Real Estate-backed Homa to launch Homa Korea, a build-to-rent platform targeting the country’s emerging rental housing market.

The partnership will be structured through a Singapore-based joint venture asset management firm, with a wholly owned Korean subsidiary operating under the Homa Korea name, the companies said Tuesday in a release. Homa Korea is expected to begin operations at its first property as early as the fourth quarter of this year.

The partners plan to advance projects on a deal-by-deal basis, before scaling the venture into a BTR fund targeting $300 million in commitments from international institutional investors. The tie-up brings together IGIS X Asset Management, an investment and development vehicle of Seoul-based IGIS, and Homa, the flexible living and BTR brand owned by an affiliate of Singapore’s ACRE.

“This partnership marks a pivotal step in institutionalising Korea’s rental housing market,” said IGIS X CEO Jun Ho Pok. “By combining IGIS X’s local expertise and regulatory capabilities with Homa’s world-class platform, we are well-positioned to deliver institutional-quality BTR assets that meet the evolving demands of Korean renters.”

Dual Strategies

Homa Korea will pursue both asset-heavy and asset-light strategies, with the former involving the acquisition, development and ownership of purpose-built multi-family assets. Under that model, IGIS X will lead land identification, entitlement, development management and construction oversight, while Homa will contribute its brand, operating systems, design approach and technology stack, the companies said.

The platform’s asset-light strategy will see Homa Korea apply the Homa brand and operating model to third-party owned properties, allowing the venture to generate management fees and brand value without taking on direct capital exposure.

IGIS is South Korea’s largest real estate asset manager, with $45 billion in assets under management, while IGIS X alone manages roughly $800 million in assets. ACRE, a private equity firm focused on rental housing, has acquired, operated, developed and made loans on more than 25,000 apartments across 75 properties in the US, Britain and Southeast Asia.

The latest deal puts ACRE’s platform at $5.2 billion in assets under management, more than $8 billion in total capital deployed and over 45,000 multi-family units transacted across more than 200 investments.

Thailand Roots

Homa currently operates more than 1,100 stabilised units across four properties in Thailand, with about 360 additional units under development, according to the announcement. The platform was created in 2018 as a joint venture of ACRE and local developer Noon Capital, with Homa positioned as an affordable rental housing provider in Thailand and Southeast Asia.

Blake Olafson, co-founder and managing director of Homa and a founding partner of ACRE, said the Korean venture marks the next step in the platform’s expansion after nine years of building the brand and operating model.

“Homa has spent the last nine years building what institutional capital wants in living-sector exposure: a proven brand, real operating data, and a platform that the world’s most discerning awards panels have recognised as best-in-class,” Olafson said.

As part of the expansion push, Homa has appointed Eric Schaffer as chief operating officer, tasking the former Essensys, WeWork and Cushman & Wakefield executive with leading operational execution across Homa Korea and the company’s broader multi-market growth plan.

Elsewhere, Homa has signed a memorandum of understanding to establish Homa MENAT, a joint venture holding exclusive master franchise rights for the brand across the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, with the first assets under that platform targeted for 2027.