LaSalle to invest $3.3bn in Japan over 12 months

US real estate firm LaSalle Investment Management plans to invest ¥300 billion (Dh12.06bn, $3.3bn) in Japanese property over the next 12 months, the head of its Japan arm said yesterday.

LaSalle Investment Management, a unit of property services firm Jones Lang LaSalle, restarted buying Japanese assets late last year, sensing opportunity in a property market hit hard by the global credit crunch.

"Property prices in Japan have fallen to an appropriate level at which we can expect a sufficient return in the long term," said Yasuo Nakashima, Chief Executive Officer of LaSalle's Japan arm, in an interview for the Reuters Global Real Estate and Infrastructure Summit.

"Asset prices may fall further, but we are sure that they would go up to an adequate level after dropping temporarily," he said.

Nakashima said his firm was looking at various assets, including offices and warehouses. Fresh investment in Japan this year is likely to reach $2.2b, six times the level in 2009 and will likely total $3.3bn over the next 12 months, he said.

LaSalle has $38.3bn in assets under management globally.