Savills IM targets more acquisitions, 2017 real estate deals hit record level

Savills Investment Management plans to deploy €1bn to acquire real estate in Asia and Europe this year.

The firm has started the year with some €887m of potential acquisitions in due diligence.

Globally, Savills IM experienced an uplift of €500m in real estate transactions in 2017 to €5.5bn from the record €5bn in 2016.

Kiran Patel, Savills IM’s chief investment officer, said: “We believe the attraction of secure and stable income returns associated with strong supply and demand fundamentals remain strong.”

Patel said urban logistics, offices in certain major cities, retail parks and other selective retail formats, socio-infrastructure assets and alternatives are expected to outperform.

Asian capital flows into global assets continued its momentum in 2017, he said.

“This has largely supported the UK’s position as one of the biggest property investment markets in Europe following the impact of Brexit.”

Its investment preference was in logistics in 2017, purchasing more than €500m of assets across Europe, with €150m in Poland on behalf of a strategic partner.

The firm said Japan was its most active market in Asia – and the third most active after the UK and Italy in 2017.

Of the record €1bn of transactions in Asia Pacific, €845m took place in Japan.

Patel noted that the Japanese real estate market has delivered yet another year of robust performance bolstered by the country’s favourable monetary and fiscal policies.

Its Japanese transactions included the sale of two sizeable office assets in Tokyo. Japan was one of the firm’s top three markets last year, after the UK and Italy.

In Australia, Savills IM acquired €120m in real estate, including the Quest East Perth, a newly-built 4-star serviced apartment hotel located within Perth’s central business district.

It also purchased The Station Oxley, a shopping centre in Brisbane with a net lettable area of approximately 7,100 sqm.

In a statement today, the firm said these acquisitions were made on behalf or the firm’s pan-Asian Savills IM Asia Pacific Fund.

Savills IM launched two funds and achieved eight new managed accounts in 2017.