The Government Pension Fund Global, a Norwegian-based fund, is about to make a very substantial investment into Asian real estate for the first time. The specific amount has not been disclosed but it has been described by the head of real estate investments at the fund, Karsten Kallevig, as “a lot.”
The fund has already purchased properties in other international major cities including: Berlin, London, New York and Paris. In 2014 it held approximately $18 billion (2.2 percent of its assets) in real estate. It is seeking to grow this figure to 5 percent. This real estate investment is likely to be in “the better parts [of] Singapore and Tokyo.”
It is mainly going to be building office properties as that is what is on sale (rather than shopping malls). The fund has built its money-based from Norway’s oil revenue which now amounts to $870 billion. Tokyo and Singapore currently seem to be the preferred areas of choice to invest in Asia.