Insights and analysis on the Japan market.
As the hospitality industry in Japan starts to see some green shoots, Adrian Zecha, founder of Aman, announces his plans for a new ryokan brand, Azumi. The build out of the brand will be done together with Japanese hospitality group Naru Developments. Their first property will be on an island in the Setouchi area and is due to open in spring 2021.
Interesting article below on PAG and the real estate market in Japan. At Nikota, we expect buy-side opportunities to improve from Q4 this year as large corporates come under pressure from lenders to offload real estate assets and Covid-related government support policies fall away. This should be good news for all investors looking to deploy capital in the Japan market.
APAC definitely stands out from a near-term growth potential perspective vs North America and Europe, and within APAC, Japan stands out given it’s the only deep institutional market in the region where investors can still efficiently invest across all the major cities and asset classes, and across the risk curve, despite the current headwinds. In a recent survey conducted by JLL, 56% of fund managers responded that they were looking to increase their real estate exposure to Japan. This was higher than the rates for all the other major markets in APAC.
Below is the latest report by well-known hotel consultant, Bill Barnett, and his team at C9 Hotelworks. Niseko has been the hottest real estate market in Japan for the past decade, and probably the hottest new resort destination in APAC over the same period. The market is in the process of moving to a new level on the back of the opening of the Park Hyatt Hotel and Residences in Hanazono earlier this year, and with upcoming projects like the Ritz Carlton Reserve in Niseko Village and the Aman in Moiwa. Summer traffic has also picked up substantially in recent years as the area slowly becomes a year-round destination for holidaymakers.
Some interesting predictions in the article below by the CEO of one of Japan's largest banks, Mizuho. Let's hope he is right and Covid is an accelerant for change at Japan Inc on the digitization, succession and M&A front. That would be a positive for many people, especially those in private equity looking at opportunities there.