The world’s largest pension fund has awarded a prime investment mandate to CBRE Global Investment Partners, its first step into global real estate investment.
Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund, which has $1.47 trillion of assets under management, has appointed CBRE GI to manage a global fund-of-funds account on its behalf. That means CBRE GI will invest in real estate funds on its behalf.
The size of the mandate was not disclosed, but GPIF has said that it wants to allocate 5% of its equity to alternative asset classes like real estate, infrastructure and private equity, which would account to about $50B.
The move is part of an expected outpouring of Japanese capital into global real estate markets.
GPIF said in 2017 that it was looking for a real estate fund-of-funds manager. Competition to win the mandate was fierce among investment managers because of the size of GPIF’s asset pool. Japanese investors are seen as incredibly cautious, and GPIF took almost 18 months to award the mandate.
According to IPE magazine, GPIF is likely to appoint more than one fund-of-funds manager, and to target core real estate.
GPIF is just one of several large Japanese institutional investors making first moves into global real estate. According to CBRE, investment into global real estate funds from Japanese investors could grow to around $15B over the next few years.
According to Estates Gazette, another massive Japanese pension fund, $500B Japan Post, is making its debut investment in global real estate by buying into a U.K. real estate fund.
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