Weekly Real Estate Investment Activities

Here are some interesting developments in real estate investments around the world, we hope you will find them useful.

DIC Pension Fund Plans to Restart Investing in Real Estate

DIC Corp.’s pension fund, which manages 87 billion yen ($959 million) of assets, plans to invest in real estate at home and abroad for the first time since 2006.

The manager of retirement savings for about 6,200 employees is taking a look at real estate after it stopped investing in the asset class as the subprime mortgage crisis was emerging, said Hideo Kondo, the asset management director of the fund. The plan comes after Japan’s commercial land prices dropped to the lowest in at least 36 years.

Japanese pension plans are adjusting their investments after two decades of slumping markets, an aging population and a dependence on retirement packages immune to investment performance. About 37 percent of Japanese pensions surveyed by JPMorgan Chase & Co. said they expect to boost allocations to alternative investments.

IREX, egX Plan to Create Real-Estate Exchanges

IREX of Saudi Arabia and Canada’s egX World plan to create three real estate exchanges within two years to provide alternative financing methods for businesses in the property industry.

IREX Group, a venture in Switzerland that will be set up by the two companies, plans to start with three exchanges in London, Vancouver and Dubai, Chairman Safar Al Harthi said at a press conference in Dubai today. Real estate products listed on the exchange will include real estate investment trusts, debt securities, property investment units, common and preferred shares backed by assets and limited partnerships, he said.

Developers in Saudi Arabia have already tried to list 1,645 projects on the exchange, while an additional 20 developers across the region have expressed interest,

Qatar fund launches a bid for London’s Savoy

ONE of the world’s richest sovereign wealth funds, with British interests including Harrods, the US Embassy building in Mayfair and Chelsea Barracks, is preparing to make offers on two of London’s most famous hotels.

The Qatar Investment Authority, which also has stakes in Sainsbury’s, Barclays and the London Stock Exchange, is understood to be in talks to buy about a third share of the Savoy Hotel and, separately, to be among the final bidders in the pound stg. 500 million-plus ($847m-plus) auction of Grosvenor House.

The authority, which is controlled by Qatar’s ruling Al Thani family, was set up in 2005 to invest the billions of dollars generated by the tiny Gulf emirate’s huge gas reserves.

Its focus on prime assets in London is seen by experts as taking advantage of the weakness of sterling and the fall in prices since the recession.

The 120-year-old Savoy is owned under a 50-50 joint venture by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and HBOS.

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