RCA in the commercial property press:

Property Sales and Fundraising Stall for Japan's REITs

Bloomberg reports: Japan's REITs may halt commercial property sales and postpone fundraising plans in the short term as the nation's strongest earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis dampen buyers' appetite for assets.

Four days after the March 11 earthquake, Tokyo-based REIT United Urban Investment canceled a plan to raise as much as 64.9 billion yen ($783 million). Their peer Invincible Investment dropped a 4.8 billion yen share sale to a Fortress Investment Group unit on March 23.

"Deals under agreement may be scrapped because buyers may get cold feet," said Dan Fasulo, managing director at Real Capital Analytics, a New York-based research firm that reports on commercial property sales. "You will see a bunch of previously agreed-upon transactions being canceled due to the fact that confidence has fallen apart in the short term."

The delay in sales may hurt the recovery of the world's second-most active real estate market. Credit Suisse Securities (Japan) halved its 2011 estimate for investments by Japan's REITs (also known as J-REITs) from 1 trillion yen to 500 billion yen.

According to Real Capital Analytics totals, Tokyo saw $18.9 billion of property sales last year, trailing only London's $23.9 billion.

Articles related to this topic:

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 Dr Chandan on Japan's Economy After the Disaster
 'Quake May Reduce Japanese Cross-Border Activity
 Will 2011 See the Return of Foreign Buyers into US Property?
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Posted by: Matthew Stone

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