UNITED STATES - L&B Realty Advisors is making its first venture into Europe with a partnership being formed with Mayfair Capital Investment Management.

"We think real estate is a localised business," said Andy Smith, chief executive at L&B. "To be successful you need to have local partner that has the relationships and access to deals that can make things work.  We have done this is Hawaii with MN Capital Partners and in the Bahamas with a local partner as well."

He continued: "As far as Europe goes, we have seen some of our competitors invest overseas through commingled funds, but we think it's better to have a local company working with us."

L&B is expecting to invest $250m (€168m) in Europe over the next 18-24 months on behalf of separate account clients such as pension fund bodies, and maintaining a medium leverage level of 50% on any assets.

L&B's current list of clients includes the Florida State Board of Administration, Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation and the Michigan Department of Treasury.

Its initial focus will be to uncover core or core-plus partnerships in the UK, such as Glasgow and Manchester. which ideally in high street retail of office space, accrding to L&B. Officials believe there is now increased demand for such properties from tenants.

On a similar note, Smith anticipates that Mayfair will in turn eventually look to invest capital in US real estate.

L&B Realty is known as a core and value-added US investment house.  Its total assets under management now stand at $3.7bn.

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