Mingtiandi

Asia real estate and outbound investment news

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
Sign Up / Login Logout

Lost your password?
Register
Forgotten Password
Cancel

Register For This Site

A password will be e-mailed to you.

  • Capital Markets
  • Events
    • Mingtiandi 2022 Event Calendar
    • APAC Residential Forum 2022
    • Asia Logistics Forum 2022
    • Asia REIT Forum 2022
    • APAC Data Centre Forum 2022
    • Singapore Focus Forum 2022
    • Office Strategies Forum 2022
    • More Events
  • MTD TV
  • People
  • Logistics
  • Data Centres
  • Asia Outbound
  • Retail
  • Research & Policy
  • Advertise

Savills IM Wins $600 Mil in Investment Mandates for Japan Market

2017/02/20 by Tyler Roney Leave a Comment

justin oconnor

Savills Investment Management’s global head, Justin O’Connor

Savills Investment Management (Savills IM) has won two mandates to invest in Japanese real estate equaling $600 million, with the commitments coming earlier this month from an existing investor and from a new institutional partner.

The London-based international real estate investment firm has been benefiting from a trend for mandates over the past three to four years, Justin O’Connor told IPE Real Estate, adding that there is growing interest in Japan, where the company has assets under management in excess of $1 billion.

Building a Japan Operation

Before scoring the two new mandates, Savills IM has been doing some legwork in Japan, including raising its first Japan-focused investment vehicle last year. The Greater Tokyo Office Fund, which garnered $82 million in commitments in an initial round, including $52.3 million from Singapore’s Straits Real Estate, has pulled together another $150 million in subsequent closes and continues to raise funds. The company has had plans to launch another similar investment vehicle in the works since last year.

O’Connor also pointed out that Japan is a market “where you need people on the ground.” Savills IM has been buttressing its Japanese team over the past few years with Will Johnson and Ataru Hayashi joining in 2015 and Mike Flynn taking over the CEO role for Asia Pacific last year.

Japan’s economy in early 2017 has been lackluster, but real estate investments in Japan remains relatively strong, according to a recent survey by the Urban Land Institute and PwC. The Emerging Trends in Real Estate report found that residential is currently the “sector of choice” for investors in Japan, and that “high occupancy levels and stable rents” have created a “quite bond-like” income stream. “We like offices and residential […] Depending on where you buy, you can get cash on cash yields of between 4 percent and 6.5 percent,” O’Connor told IPE Real Estate.

APAC and the Billion Dollar Fund

Chinatown Point

Savills IM last year disposed of Chinatown Point in Singapore

While Savills IM has been expanding in Japan, it has also been ramping up its operations in the rest of Asia following its acquisition of Germany’s SEB Asset Management in September of 2015. In January 2016 the company announced Asia Fund 3, a $1 billion Asia core-plus fund.

After more than a year, Asia Fund 3, which follows the Savills Asia Fund 2, is reportedly on track and the firm transacted a record $868 million in Asia Pacific real estate in 2016. Of those deals, Savills IM managed to close six transactions in the Land of the Rising Sun over the course of the year, including the sale of the Tama Center building in Tokyo and the Chinatown Point complex in Singapore.

Facing Challenges to Mainland Deals

Despite Savills IM looking forward to opening a Shanghai office this year, O’Connor told the AsianInvestor last week that China’s economic slowdown and capital outflow restrictions are hurting real estate investments in the Middle Kingdom: “Tier one prices are very high in large part because capital can’t leave the country.”

In early 2017, the investment management firm’s affiliated brokerage released a report which highlighted challenges facing real estate investors on the mainland caused by heavy regulation. “The increasingly convoluted and varied nature of these measures is making it harder to understand and navigate China’s property market, for investors, developers and home owners alike,” the report stated.

Share this now

  • LinkedIn
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email

Filed Under: Finance Tagged With: Featured, Japan, Justin O'Connor, mandate, Savills Investment Management, weekly-sp

https://vimeo.com/722412109

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Asia Proptech Report 2022 (Spreadsheet)

Get Mingtiandi Delivered

REIT forum 2022 Web banner

MTD TV

show thumbnail
China Lockdowns Boost Warehouse Market: LaSalle, SC, C&W and Baker Mac on MTD TV
value-add forum 2021-03-30
Link REIT CEO George Hongchoy Says Sustainability Key to Boosting Returns

More MTD TV Videos>>

People in the News

Lu Yi Shimao
Asia Real Estate People in the News 2022-06-27
Wu Jianxin Kaisa
Asia Real Estate People in the News 2022-06-20
Graham Mackie Tishman
Tishman Speyer Appoints Graham Mackie to Lead APAC Push Beyond China and India
Antoine Mesnage
AXA IM Alts Appoints Antoine Mesnage as Head of Australia, Promotes 2 Other Execs

More Industry Professionals>>

People in the News

Asia Real Estate People in the News 2022-06-27

Lu Yi Shimao

A senior appointment by one of China’s crew of defaulting privately-controlled developers leads this week’s roundup of … Read More>>

Asia Real Estate People in the News 2022-06-20

Wu Jianxin Kaisa

Top level executive changes at a pair of major mainland real estate companies lead this week’s round-up of personnel … Read More>>

Tishman Speyer Appoints Graham Mackie to Lead APAC Push Beyond China and India

Graham Mackie Tishman

US developer Tishman Speyer has hired industry veteran Graham Mackie as a managing director to lead the firm’s Asia … Read More>>

AXA IM Alts Appoints Antoine Mesnage as Head of Australia, Promotes 2 Other Execs

Antoine Mesnage

AXA IM Alts is shaking up its leadership team Down Under with the appointment of Antoine Mesnage as the French firm’s … Read More>>

More Industry Professionals>>

Latest Stories

Lin Ho Man
Evergrande to ‘Vigorously’ Fight Winding-Up Petition Filed by Disgruntled Investor
Sunac Sun Hongbin
Sunac Meets Investors to Seek Second Extension on $600M in Domestic Bonds
Actis to Invest $700M in India Life Science Assets and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

Sponsored Features

Should Proptech Give Us Sleepless Nights?
Hong Kong’s Evolving Commercial Real Estate Landscape
Opportunities in the Greater Bay Area

More Sponsored Features>>

MTD-QR-Code-320

Connect with Mingtiandi

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Real Estate News

  • Capital Markets
  • 2022 Event Calendar
  • MTD TV Archives
  • People
  • Logistics
  • Data Centres
  • Asia Outbound
  • Retail

More Mingtiandi

  • About Mingtiandi
  • Contact Mingtiandi
  • Mingtiandi Membership
  • Newsletter Subscription
  • Advertise
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy
  • Join the Mingtiandi Team


© 2007-2022 China Advertising Media Ltd (Samoa). All rights reserved.