Japan’s Daibiru Corp Buying Sydney Tower From Investa Fund for $378M

Daibiru Corp is buying a central Sydney office tower from a fund managed by Investa Property Group, with market sources confirming a deal value of around A$600 million ($378 million), as Japanese capital continues to pour into Australia real estate at a record-breaking pace.

Daibiru, a property subsidiary of shipping major Mitsui OSK Lines, executed an agreement with Investa Commercial Property Fund to acquire 100 percent ownership of 135 King Street, the Osaka-based company said Monday in a release.

Australia’s Investa will continue as the investment and property manager of the 27-storey building, which comprises 32,695 square metres (351,925 square feet) of net leasable area. In a separate announcement, Investa chief investment officer Adam Crowe said the partnership with Daibiru marked a “new chapter” for the 1990-vintage tower, which the fund has invested in since 2014.

“The sale from ICPF to Daibiru demonstrates the interest in well-located, quality assets in Sydney’s CBD,” Crowe said. “We are excited to welcome Daibiru to the Investa family and look forward to growing a long-term relationship with them here in Australia.”

Top Office Deal of 2025

Daibiru’s reported consideration works out to A$18,351 ($11,565) per square metre of NLA. JLL advised on the deal — Australia’s biggest in the office sector in the year to date — which comes after Mitsui Fudosan’s 2024 acquisition of a 66 percent stake in Mirvac’s 55 Pitt Street office project near the Sydney harbourfront with an estimated end value of A$2 billion ($1.3 billion).

“Following the 2024 sale of 55 Pitt Street in Sydney, Daibiru’s investment in 135 King Street demonstrates that Japanese capital is entrenched now as a key player driving the revival of the Sydney office market,” said Luke Billiau, head of capital markets for Australia and New Zealand at JLL. “Our interactions with investors in Japan suggest this movement of capital will continue as a theme this year across Australian core markets as we enter this new liquidity cycle.”

Japanese investors deployed A$2.3 billion into Australian commercial real estate in 2024, according to MSCI’s Capital Trends report, with 55 Pitt Street accounting for a significant portion.

Combined with their A$2.9 billion in 2023, the outbound surge took Japanese players’ two-year total to more than double the sum of the previous 23 years, the data provider said.

Racking Up Assets

Daibiru’s previous investments Down Under include the A$240 million acquisition of Sydney’s 275 George Street development project in 2018 alongside TH Real Estate (now Nuveen Real Estate), with the 18-storey office building currently 100 percent occupied.

The Japanese firm also took a half-stake in 7 Spencer Street, a Mirvac office development in Melbourne, in 2023.

Parent group Mitsui OSK Lines last year committed a respective S$130 million and S$131 million ($97 million and $98 million) to CapitaLand SEA Logistics Fund and CapitaLand India Growth Fund 2 (making the latter investment via Daibiru).

The infusions to the Singaporean giant’s private vehicles helped fund development of Thailand’s largest standalone warehouse and gave Daibiru a 25 percent effective stake in International Tech Park Chennai, Radial Road, a 2.6 million square foot campus catering to IT firms.

Also in 2024, Mitsui OSK Lines provided backing for Hankyu Hanshin Properties’ buy, alongside an unnamed Malaysian fund, of a A$3.2 billion logistics portfolio held by a joint venture of ESR and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.