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Mubadala co-launches $600m Japanese property fund 

By Matt Smith
Japanese property Tokyo Reuters
Property prices in Tokyo fell in the first quarter but were up year on year
  • Abu Dhabi’s SWF launches $600m fund with three partners
  • Capital Tokyo and port city Osaka are the portfolio targets
  • Japanese property market ‘resilient and stable’ says Mubadala

Sovereign wealth fund Mubadala has launched a $600 million Japanese property investment joint venture, the Abu Dhabi investor said on Wednesday.

Mubadala, which has $276 billion of assets under management, has partnered with Canada’s Manulife Investment Management, Connecticut-based Proprium Capital Partners and Tokyo’s Samurai Capital to buy real estate in the world’s third-largest economy.

The joint venture will target Tokyo and port city Osaka. It already owns some rental multi-family properties and will seek to expand its portfolio, according to a statement on Mubadala’s website.

“The objective of the partnership is to acquire assets that deliver affordable and high-quality living spaces for tenants and attractive and sustainable returns for shareholders,” the statement said.

The Japanese capital’s residential property prices for units sold for more than 100 million yen ($715,000) fell 7.6 percent in the first quarter of 2023, according to consultant Knight Frank, although prices were up 2.1 percent year on year.

Tokyo’s 12-month performance ranks it 19th among major global residential property markets, Knight Frank estimates.

Dubai was first with a 44.2 percent price increase in the 12 months to March 31. Abu Dhabi residential property values rose 4.6 percent over the same period, according to ValuStrat.

The Japanese multi-family property market “has proven to be resilient and stable, offering attractive risk-adjusted returns with significant future growth potential,” said Matthias Neuling, Mubadala’s head of real estate in Asia, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Bilateral trade between the UAE and Japan rose 58 percent to exceed AED200 billion ($54 billion) last year, compared with AED127 billion in 2021.

As such, the UAE is Japan’s seventh-largest trade partner.

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