Standard Life Investments has bought two office properties in Tokyo for its Select Property Fund, its first direct investment in Japan.
The Kandabashi and Nishi-Shinbashi PR-EX properties, in central Tokyo, were bought from Sumitomo Corporation.
The acquisitions take the fund’s exposure to the Asia Pacific region to around 30%, with Japan accounting for around 15% of the fund, which has a global investment strategy.
Fund manager Andrew Jackson said the company expected Tokyo’s office market to be one of the “main beneficiaries of accelerating economic activity and rising inflation”.
The fund, which invests in direct and indirect property, has holdings in Japan’s Mitsui Fudosan and Mitsubishi Estates. It also has stakes in British Land, Capital & Counties, Prologis, Simon Property Group and newly launched Spanish REIT, Hispania. Around 19% of the £419.6m fund is invested in US property stocks.
The fund is targeting main European cities and Tokyo, where it sees improving growth over the next few years and increasing occupier demand and rents.
In May, the fund sold a Polish logistics portfolio to Blackstone’s Logicor for €118m. The fund reduced its position in US hotel operator Starwood Hotels after uncertainty over the departure of the leisure group’s chief financial officer.
In its May investment review, the asset manager said it was looking to “recycle from higher-yielding defensive markets” into recovering direct real estate markets.
