Daan van Aert: Logistic Warehouses And Car Parks Present Best Property Investment Opportunities In China

In this episode of China Money Network, head of non-listed real estate Asia in APG, one of the largest pension fund asset managers in the world with assets under management of approximately €325 billion, Daan van Aert, discusses APG's investments in China such as car parks and logistic warehouses, his views on the Chinese residential property market and if distressed properties in China present good opportunities for investors. Listen to the full-interview in the audio podcast, watch the shortened video version or read an excerpt below. Q: APG is one of the largest pension fund asset managers in the world with €325 billion under management. Give us some background on AGP's investments in Asia, and what kind of role does Asian real estate play in APG's overall strategy in Asia? A: APG started an office in Hong Kong in 2007 with a mandate for private equity real estate and infrastructure investments. Shortly after, we expanded our team to include listed real estate equity and emerging market equity. Since we started, our portfolio in Asia has grown from €1 billion to €9 billion under management. Of the €9 billion assets currently under management, €6 billion is in both listed (€4 billion) and private (€2 billion) real estate. In terms of geographical breakdown, about 70% to 75% of our total real estate portfolio is in developed markets such as Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. The rest is in emerging markets, and China takes about half of this portion. Q: How much capital are you deploying every year into private real estate? A: We don't have a target. What we do is to look at our already large existing portfolio and focus on strategies and the right partners to add value. If we can find interesting strategies and strong partners, then we will invest more money. During the last few years, we have been investing considerable amount of money continuously. Our real estate portfolio has grown from €1 billion in 2007 to €6 billion, from both investment appreciation and new allocations. That gives you a sense of our growth. Q: What is the average size of your investments and how many investments do you usually keep in your portfolio? A: We serve very large institutional clients, therefore we won't look at transactions under $75 million. In terms of the number of investments we have, we don't really have any preferences, as our global real estate portfolio is already very diversified..... Daan van Aert is head of non-listed real estate Asia of APG (Algemene Pensioen Groep NV) in the Netherlands, one of the largest pension fund asset managers in the world with assets under management of approximately €325 billion. Van Aert is responsible for APG’s €2 billion non-listed real estate investments in Asia Pacific.