LaSalle has $3 bln for Asia investments

LaSalle Investment Management said on Monday it has $3 billion available for investing in Asian real estate and is ready to re-enter the market after nine months on the sidelines, focusing initially on Japan and Australia.

"The process of debt restructuring and market resetting and capital and economic stabilisation seems to be happening fastest in those countries," Chief Investment Officer for Asia Pacific Ian Mackie told the Reuters Global Real Estate Summit.

"Japan has had a price correction that has been very significant (and) people forget that Japan is still the second biggest economy in the world," he added.

The U.S. real estate investment firm, which has $8.7 billion in Asian assets, favours "gateway" cities such as Tokyo and Osaka in Japan and Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in Australia.

MacKie said LaSalle's $3 billion warchest, most of it from a fund raised around the middle of last year, will probably translate into acquisitions worth about $6 billion as the firm planned to keep debt levels low.

The firm, the investment arm of property services firm Jones Lang LaSalle, used to borrow up to 75 percent to fund an acquisition in Japan but will likely seek about 50 percent financing under current market conditions.

Asian property investment sales fell sharply in the second half of last year, hurt by a tightening of credit markets and a collapse in investor confidence following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September.

For the first three months of 2009, investment sales fell 83 percent to $3.1 billion from a year ago, according to data compiled by rival property services firm CB Richard Ellis. The worst-hit markets were Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Mackie said LaSalle invested in most types of property but is keenest on warehouses, hotels and offices. Besides Japan and Australia, its other preferred destinations include China and South Korea.

But the firm will probably give Indian real estate a miss as it feels the potential returns do not compensate for the risks.

"We have not seen an attractive investment in India in terms of risk-adjusted returns... We can get the same returns in Japan and the risks are much, much higher in India," he said.

BEAR RALLY

LaSalle said that while it saw opportunities in Japan and Australia, it remained cautious about Asian real estate in the near-term and warned that a pick-up in home sales in China, Hong Kong and Singapore could be a "bear rally".

Kenneth Tsang, the firm's Asia-Pacific head of research and strategy, said the spike in apartment sales was driven by pent-up demand and low mortgage rates and may not be sustainable.

"There is a risk that this is a bear market rally and the situation could reverse when such liquidity leave the cities or country, or there is new shock to the economies," he said.

He said office rents in cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore may see further declines although the pace will be slower than in the early part of 2009. Commercial real estate will only recuperate once economies stabilise, he added.

Tsang said the recovery process will be slower in Singapore, Shanghai and Beijing because of the new office space that has or will come onto the market in coming months.

"Real estate is generally of a late-cycle nature and thus fundamentals will continue to deteriorate, particularly as we are expecting the labour market will continue to worsen from now, at least to the first half of 2010."

Source from http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-40497220090622?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0