A Greystar Real Estate Partners-led China-focused residential fund has raised $450m at first close.
Greystar, together with its investment partners APG Asset Management, Bouwinvest Real Estate Investors, and the real estate arm of Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) raised the capital.
The fund will invest in top-tier Chinese markets with an initial focus on Shanghai.
Greystar previously created its Asia-Pacific rental housing platform (Greystar Asia-Pac) with MIRA Real Estate last year and is now joined by APG who intends to support the platform’s rental housing strategy across the region.
Wes Fuller, the leader of Greystar’s global investment management business, said: “Establishing this fund gives us an early mover advantage to implement our unique investment strategy by assembling and operating an unrivalled rental housing portfolio at scale.”
Charles Ma, the managing director for Greystar in China, said: “We are in the process of building a vertically integrated local team with specialists in development, investment and operations unique in this market.
”The team will be locally managed but supported by Greystar’s global team, network, and capital.”
Graeme Torre, APG’s head of Asia-Pacific private real estate, said: “APG is already a long-term investor in rented residential strategies in both Europe and the US.
”We expect this sector to establish itself very quickly as an institutional asset class throughout Asia-Pacific.”
Tjarko Edzes, a director for Asia-Pacific investments for Bouwinvest, said: “Bouwinvest has extensive experience investing in and managing rental housing, both through our flagship fund in the Netherlands and our international investments globally.
“This investment in the China multifamily sector builds on that track record and is highly complementary to our recent investment in a rental housing portfolio in central Tokyo”
Brett Robson, the global head of MIRA Real Estate, said: ”There is a significant gap in the Asia-Pacific region for quality rental housing provided by specialist managers.
”Having worked closely with Greystar in the US and UK over the last decade, the opportunity to work together across Asia-Pacific and introduce Greystar’s proven expertise and experience is highly compelling.”
