The WSJ reports,"LaSalle Investment Management has raised $1 billion this year to invest in real-estate assets in Asia, in the latest sign that investors are making bolder bets in areas that are still enjoying strong growth.
LaSalle, a unit of JLL, said that of the $1 billion, $585 million was raised for its fourth Asian opportunity fund, which is targeting industrial real estate in China and commercial property in Japan and Australia. The remaining amount raised is for institutional investors with separate mandates.
"Asia has become a lot more appealing," said Mark Gabbay, co-chief executive officer of LaSalle Asia Pacific. "The underlying fundamentals are attractive: Demographics, job growth and liquidity conditions are still good."
In the real-estate private-equity world, opportunity funds typically buy challenging properties, not trophy buildings. Managers of the $1 billion that LaSalle raised say they are looking for buildings that aren't completely leased that they can refurbish, boost occupancy and rental rates and then sell to a buyer with less appetite for risk.
LaSalle, which manages $50 billion of real-estate assets globally, is looking for shorter-term investment deals in Asia, and hopes to hold these assets for about three years on average.
In 2012, for instance, the fund invested 7.8 billion yen ($76.8 million at current exchange rates) in an office building about 20 minutes from the central business district in Osaka. It plans to sell the building to a Japanese real-estate investment trust.
Some investors are now willing to take on more risk by allocating more money to such buildings, whose returns can reach as high as 20%. Returns from high-quality buildings with high occupancies tend to be lower, but so is the risk, Mr. Gabbay added.
Economic growth in some parts of Asia has been slowing, but its growth rates are still stronger than those in the U.S. and Europe. Beijing on Wednesday is expected to report that gross domestic product growth reached 7.4% in the second quarter, in line with GDP growth in the first quarter, according to a median forecast of 21 economists polled by The Wall Street Journal. The economy of the 18-nation euro bloc grew less than 1% in the first quarter of 2014, and the European Central Bank forecast that GDP growth for the euro-zone economy will reach 1.2% for 2014.
Investors in the LaSalle fund include sovereign-wealth funds and pension funds from the U.S., Middle East and Europe. These investors typically avoid risk, but some are getting more adventuresome.
"Investors are concerned about their real-estate investments in a persistently low interest-rate environment," said Mr. Gabbay. He also noted that some are questioning if some high-quality buildings in Asia's gateway cities are overvalued".
