Wealth funds turning to Tokyo property as land prices continue to rise

Tokyo

GLOBAL wealth funds are moving to buy more Tokyo properties to take advantage of rising prices in the Japanese capital, one of the highest-ranking officials at the land ministry said.

"Long-term pension funds in the US and Europe, particularly in Scandinavia, are looking to lift their positions" in Japanese real estate, Kisaburo Ishii, a vice minister at the ministry, said on March 30. "They have been underweight Japanese real estate."

Norway's US$870 billion wealth fund is preparing to purchase properties in Tokyo after scouring Asia for investment opportunities, Karsten Kallevig, head of real estate investments at the Oslo-based fund, said on March 20. Commercial property prices in Tokyo rose 2.9 per cent last year, after a 2.3 per cent gain in 2013, as foreign investors, including Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, GIC Pte, snapped up assets. For large pension funds, "there is quite a lot of movement to make up for the shortfall" of Japan…