has established a new Japanese multi-family residential investment platform in partnership with Ivanhoé Cambridge and an Asian sovereign investor.
The Allianz Real Estate Asia-Pacific Japan Multi-Family Fund I (AREAP JMF 1) had a first close of US$$500m (€443m). A second close is expected by the end of the year taking the platform’s total equity commitment to US$750m.
Rushabh Desai, Asia-Pacific CEO of Allianz Real Estate told Âé¶¹Ó³» Real Assets that depending on the pace of deployment, the investors would have the option to increase their equity commitments up to an overall hard cap of US$1bn.
Upon being fully invested, he said, the platform would have an investment capacity of approximately US$2-US$2.5bn in gross asset value.
AREAP JMF 1 will acquire primarily newly completed, well-located assets in Japan’s four major cities, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Fukuoka, and lease-up and stabilise the assets for long-term hold.
“We have assets under due diligence now and expect to finalise a couple of transactions in the first quarter of next year,� he said.
Allianz Real Estate itself already has a residential portfolio of approximately US$2bn in Japan, and has a strong team on the ground to source assets, he added.
This is the first Allianz Real Estate partnership with Ivanhoe Cambridge in Asia-Pacific, although the parent company had co-investments with the Canadian pension plan in Europe.
Desai said the new residential platform was part of the Allianz Real Estate strategy to bring in like-minded institutional investors to invest alongside Allianz and comes on the back of the 2020 launch of AREAP Core I, a US$2.3bn pan-Asia core investment platform where Allianz and NPS are 50-50 investors.
“We were encouraged by feedback from investors on the invest alongside Allianz strategy. The combined scale and expertise of like-minded institutional investors provide prioritised access to opportunities, said he told Âé¶¹Ó³» Real Assets.
George Agethen, senior vice president of Ivanhoé Cambridge, described the venture as “an excellent opportunity� for the plan to launch its new Japan multi-family investment strategy.
“This investment will serve to further grow and diversify our portfolio in Japan and Asia-Pacific,� he said.
The new multi-family partnership is Ivanhoé Cambridge’s second Japan investment in 2021, following a last-mile logistics strategy announced earlier in the year.
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