Weave Living, BlackRock to Unpack Rental Residential Partnership on MTD TV

Mingtiandi’s APAC Residential Forum 2024 this week offers a closer look at the tie-up between regional multi-family platform Weave Living and the world’s biggest asset manager, BlackRock.

For Wednesday’s spotlight interview conducted by Mingtiandi’s Michael Cole, MTD TV welcomes Weave founder and CEO Sachin Doshi back to the show, joined by first-time guest Hamish MacDonald, who leads Asia Pacific real estate at BlackRock.

Weave last month unveiled a joint venture with a BlackRock fund to buy a Singapore serviced apartment block for S$148 million ($111 million). Doshi and MacDonald will chat about that deal and other facets of their firms’ strategic partnership, followed by a Q&A session in which viewers can quiz the pair on their outlook for APAC’s rental residential market.

The 45-minute presentation, which is sponsored by Yardi, will stream live at 10am Hong Kong time on 20 March.

Standout Growth in 2023

According to MSCI Real Assets, rental residential investment in APAC reached $12 billion in 2023, up 5 percent from the previous year and the only major sector to see growth. But with the region’s investment volume in the segment equal to 10 percent of volume in the Americas last year, there remains room for expansion.

Enter Doshi’s Weave, which owns and manages some 2,500 rental accommodation units across Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo, with plans to enter other gateway cities like Osaka and Seoul.

In February, Weave’s JV with BlackRock agreed to acquire Citadines Mount Sophia, a 154-unit property near the city-state’s Bugis area, from CapitaLand Ascott Trust for the equivalent of just over S$961,000 per key as the operator’s second Singapore location.

BlackRock’s investment in the Weave joint venture is its second major bet on Singapore’s living sector in recent months, with the asset management titan having late last year acquired Blackstone’s economic interest in a CDL residential project on Sentosa island.

BlackRock has made investments in European multi-family under its BlackRock Europe Property Fund VI and The Castle, a London build-to-rent joint venture with Outpost Management, as well as in US apartments through its BlackRock Impact Opportunities Fund.

The NYSE-listed group led by chairman Larry Fink manages $327 billion in liquid and illiquid alternative investments and commitments on behalf of clients worldwide.

China Panel to Follow

The APAC Residential Forum continues on Thursday, 21 March, with a panel discussion on multi-family investment in China.

Viewers can tune in to hear perspectives from Selena Shi, managing director of acquisitions and RMB fund at LaSalle Investment Management; James MacDonald, head of China research at Savills; and Johnny Shao, managing director at CPE Funds Management.

The trio will share strategies for navigating the rental housing market in mainland China, after JLL’s 2023 survey of 50 regional and global investors showed 93 percent of respondents planning to invest in China’s rental housing market within the next three years.