Joe McAlister's Blog

As property funds comb the globe for institutional investors, Asian sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and, increasingly, insurers, Asia is firmly consolidating its status as the capital of capital.  شقق للايجار
The significance of China in supplying legions of well-heeled and property-hungry individual purchasers is well-known. The enormous money of institutional investment, on the other hand, has property fund managers all over the world drooling.
According to a new analysis from private-fund tracker Preqin, Asian investors are by far the most likely to make fresh commitments to private real estate investments in the coming year. Over the next 12 months, 71 percent of Asian institutions plan to invest new money in new property mandates, nearly tripling the 35 percent rate for North American investors and nearly tripling the 24 percent rate for European investors.
"With 452 funds on the road throughout the world attempting to raise money, the fund-raising situation remains tough..."
Separate evidence from BlackRock, which manages both private equity and publicly traded property investments, reveals that Asian insurance firms, particularly in China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Malaysia, have a strong interest for real estate equity and debt, as well as other illiquid assets like private equity and hedge funds.
According to a breakdown of a BlackRock poll of 200 insurers around the world, 40 of which were from Asia, 61 percent of Asian insurers want to commit more money to real-estate equity and 49 percent want to invest more in real-estate debt, according to the World Property Channel "
While most insurers acknowledge that they need to adapt in order to increase shareholder returns, the poll reveals that Asian insurers are considerably more focused on utilizing a tactical asset allocation approach to do so than their global counterparts "The survey was released by David Lomas, the chairman of BlackRock's global financial institutions group.
"Asian insurers are also more active in planning for the conclusion of quantitative easing measures," he noted, "and are looking to invest in new diversifying fixed income asset classes."
Except in Japan, where no insurers are trying to raise their interest in either property equity or debt, and the Philippines, where property equity accounts for 20% of the total, real estate equity is a target for insurers from all around Asia.
Insurers in China (86 percent) and South Korea (86 percent) are the most interested in real estate loans (75 percent). According to a recent survey by CBRE, Chinese insurers have $14.4 billion to invest on overseas real estate.
This inflow of finance is critical to the industry's survival. According to Preqin data, the fund raising atmosphere remains tough, with 452 funds on the road around the world attempting to raise money.
Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe IV, the world's largest now in fund raising, and Blackstone Real Estate Partners Asia, the world's third-largest and largest Asia fund, are both in the works for the Blackstone Group. They sit between the Lone Star Real Estate Fund III and the Lone Star Real Estate Fund IV, which has a global focus and is trying to fund $6 billion.
In the third quarter, 59 percent of funds that closed to new investors throughout the world raised more money than they expected, up from 40% in the second quarter and only 36% last year. Brookfield Asset Management has closed its global Brookfield Strategic Real Estate Partners fund, which had assets of $4.4 billion.
Asia is also becoming a more important destination for capital deployment. Asian investors, rather than acting as a source of "dumb money," are requiring intra-regional investment, reflecting the home bias prevalent in most regions.
"While our focus remains on North America and European real estate, institutional investors' desire for Asia real estate has recently increased," said Joseph Pacini, chairman of BlackRock's Asia Pacific alternative investment strategy department.
Asia is the top priority for 55 percent of Asian investors, followed by North America (48 percent) and Europe (39 percent), which have the same popularity as straight-up global funds.
According to statistics provided by Preqin for the World Property Channel, this has resulted in some notably big closures for Asia-focused funds this year.
With the value-added Alpha Asia Macro Trends Fund II, a pan-Asian fund, Singapore-based Alpha Investment Partners has closed the largest pure Asia fund so far this year, at US$1.65 billion.
Another Singapore manager, Mapletree Investments, raised US$1.4 billion with the opportunistic and value-added Mapletree China Opportunity Fund II, which focuses on China and is backed by government money known as "Singapore Inc."
The Gateway Real Estate Fund IV, a core-plus, opportunistic, and value-added fund from Hong Kong-based Gaw Capital Partners, raised US$1.025 billion this year, making it the third billion-dollar fund this year.