MUFG Plans $680M Japan Real Estate Fund and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

With Japanese real estate continuing to enjoy most-favoured-market status with institutional investors, one of the country’s largest financial institutions has set up a new fund dedicated to the sector, with that story leading our look at headlines from around the region today. Also making the list are a pair of acquisitions by Singapore’s Centurion as the rental housing specialist adds properties in Malaysia and Australia.

MUFG Reveals $680M Fund to Invest in Japanese Real Estate

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group plans to launch a JPY 100 billion ($680 million) fund to invest in Japanese real estate, an executive at the country’s largest banking group told Reuters.

The new fund, reported by Reuters for the first time, is the latest in a run of Japanese property fund launches this year as real estate prices climb and the central bank looks to hike interest rates further from still ultra-low levels. The fund will be the unit’s second-largest and will target underperforming assets, seeking to improve their attractiveness. Read more>>

Singapore’s Centurion Adds Johor Property for $26M

A unit of dormitory operator Centurion Corporation has acquired another dormitory operator in Johor for RM110.8 million ($26 million), the SGX-listed company said in a bourse filing on Tuesday.

A Centurion subsidiary has acquired all the issued shares in Malaysia-incorporated Harum Megah, the group said. Harum Megah owns and operates a portfolio of six purpose-built worker accommodations in Johor, with a total of 7,197 beds. Read more>>

Centurion Picks Up Perth Student Housing Site for $5.7M

Centurion Holdings has secured the former Victoria Police Association headquarters in southwest Perth with plans to develop a 19-storey student accommodation complex on the site. The Singapore-based developer paid A$8.8 million ($5.7 million) to acquire the site at 37-43 Stirling Highway, Nedlands.

Agreed late last year, the purchase was conditional on a permit being issued, which happened in May, with settlement taking place last week. With the site seven kilometres from town benefiting from exposure to both Williams Road and Meriwa Street, the project will be branded Dwell on Williams. Read more>>

Jane Street Expands Singapore Office with New Lease in IOI Central Boulevard

Jane Street Group is planning to move to a larger office in Singapore in the latest sign of the securities trading juggernaut expanding in Asia after it signed a major lease in Hong Kong.

The US firm is seeking to take up at least one floor at IOI Central Boulevard Towers, a new office development in the central business district, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Read more>>

JP Morgan Says Cheng Family May Need to Buy Assets, Make Loans to Help New World

Debt-laden New World Development’s controlling shareholder may eventually have to offer the firm liquidity support by either buying properties or providing loans if the developer cannot sell assets to other parties, according to JPMorgan.

But an injection of capital, as suggested by a recent media report, was less likely, the US investment bank said in a report on Tuesday. NWD stock dropped on Tuesday after the property developer said it had not received a proposal from its controlling shareholder, the billionaire Cheng family, on a capital injection. NWD’s shares fell 2.8 percent to HK$6.87 at the close on Tuesday after ending Monday 6.8 percent higher. Read more>>

Blackstone Closes on $5.5B for Largest Infrastructure Secondaries Fund Ever

Blackstone said on Tuesday that it has raised $5.5 billion for SP Infrastructure IV, the latest rendition of the firm’s infrastructure secondaries fund, along with its related committed program vehicles.

In a statement, Blackstone pointed to growing opportunities in secondary investments infrastructure vehicles as commitments to the sector grow in scale and popularity. Read more>>

Second-Hand Tokyo Condo Prices Jumped 39% in July

Prices for used condominiums in central Tokyo are surging as a shortage of newly built units meets rising demand. A survey by real estate research firm Tokyo Kantei showed average prices for previously owned condos in the capital’s 23 wards reached almost JPY 105 million yen, or over $710,000 in July, representing an increase of nearly 39 percent from the same month last year.

Average prices in Tokyo’s six central wards rose most rapidly, jumping by 100 percent or more in the past year. Read more>>

Macquarie-Backed Local: Residential in Melbourne Docklands JV

Macquarie-backed Local: Residential is teaming up with landowner and developer MONNO to deliver an A$350m ($228 million) tower in Melbourne’s Docklands.

MONNO and Local have partnered to deliver 111 Lorimer Street, a 32-level, build-to-rent tower designed to appeal to the new class of long-term renters. The project is one of the first Melbourne metro developments to kick off construction in 2025 and will comprise 391 residential units with completion scheduled for late 2027. Read more>>

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