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Tag: multifamily

  • Weave Living Acquires 108 Tokyo Apartment Units with Japanese Investors

    Weave Living Acquires 108 Tokyo Apartment Units with Japanese Investors

    Weave Living has acquired three Tokyo apartment buildings comprising 108 units backed by a consortium of Japanese investors to expand its domestic capital partnerships.

    The off-market purchase, announced Wednesday, lifts the Hong Kong-based rental operator’s assets under management in Japan to JPY 120 billion ($764 million) across nearly 50 properties. Weave did not disclose the purchase price or the seller’s identity, but confirmed the investor group includes one of the world’s largest financial services institutions.

    Refurbishment and Digital Leasing Plan

    Two of the assets, Ginza Hatchobori and Yoyogi Uehara, sit in Chuo and Shibuya wards inside Tokyo’s central five districts. The third building is in Taito ward’s Asakusabashi district.

    Plans call for converting the three properties into the Weave Place long-stay furnished accommodation brand. Upgrades will cover common areas and full apartment interiors. Leasing operations will shift to the company’s proprietary mobile app, which bundles utility bills and Wi-Fi into single monthly contracts with minimal upfront costs.

    Furnished units target professional tenants relocating to the Japanese capital. The model bypasses traditional multi-year leasing structures that require heavy initial deposits.

    Institutional Capital in Tokyo Living Sector

    Institutional capital into Japanese residential assets has accelerated as operators look for steady yields backed by urban migration. Furnished formats generate higher revenue per square metre than conventional long-term leases. However, they demand higher operational oversight and carry shorter lease profiles.

    Across the 23 wards, Tokyo residential rents rose 2.8 percent in the second quarter and 5.3 percent year on year to JPY 4,829 per square metre per month. In the central five wards, rents climbed 5.2 percent from a year earlier. Occupancy there edged down 0.8 percentage points to 95.6 percent.

    Weave founder and chief executive Sachin Doshi said the transaction reflects “the continued interest of offshore and domestic capital in seeking a differentiated exposure to the living sector in Japan”.

    Expansion Following KKR Venture Exit

    Recent activity follows a series of programmatic joint ventures across Tokyo. Weave closed its first domestic partnership last November with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group anchoring an 11-property, JPY 20 billion portfolio. In January, it added a JPY 22 billion venture with BGO Strategic Capital Partners for 10 buildings.

    In August, Weave partnered with Aberdeen Investments on a JPY 15 billion acquisition of six apartment blocks backed by Dutch pension manager PGGM. On September 7, Weave and private equity firm KKR completed a JPY 55 billion recapitalisation of a 14-property Tokyo portfolio with a Southeast Asian institutional investor. That deal allowed Weave to exit its equity position while keeping long-term management rights.

    Phased unit refurbishments are now underway across the newly acquired buildings. Renovated units are scheduled to roll out onto the company’s digital leasing platform over the coming quarters.

  • Greystar Appoints Tom Livelli to Run $3.9 Billion Asia-Pacific Living Portfolio

    Greystar Appoints Tom Livelli to Run $3.9 Billion Asia-Pacific Living Portfolio

    Greystar has appointed former EQT partner Tom Livelli as head of Asia Pacific. He will run a $3.9 billion living-sector portfolio across four regional markets.

    Based in Sydney, Livelli takes up the executive director post in early 2027. He will direct roughly 250 staff managing more than 11,500 rental apartments and student beds across Australia, Japan, South Korea, and mainland China. He replaces Adam Pillay, who has left the firm.

    Executive reshuffle across regional markets

    Livelli spent the past three years in Madrid as head of living strategies for Europe at EQT Real Estate. Before that, he built Greystar’s South American operations between 2017 and 2023. That expansion took the platform past $800 million in assets across 19 investments, alongside eight management contracts covering roughly 6,000 units. His earlier career includes tenures at Boston Andes Capital and Clark Realty Capital.

    The leadership change puts Livelli in charge during a regional shift toward residential formats. Institutional investors across Asia-Pacific have pulled capital from secondary offices and speculative logistics. They are targeting cash-generating living assets instead. Livelli must now consolidate operations and reallocate equity across the firm’s living formats.

    Pivot to purpose-built student beds

    Capital has flowed directly toward Australian student housing. In April 2025, the firm completed its largest deal in the region to date: an A$1.6 billion ($1.1 billion) buyout of a 5,662-bed student portfolio from Singapore sovereign fund GIC and Wee Hur Holdings.

    Student housing offers immediate rental indexation and counter-cyclical cash flows. Pure-play multifamily developments struggle to match those returns under current construction costs. Student accommodation also brings faster tenant turnover and flexible rate adjustments, providing a stronger inflation hedge than multi-year commercial leases.

    Pruning industrial sites and rental developments

    Greystar has simultaneously stepped back from other property sectors in the region. It wound down an Australian infill industrial drive launched in 2022, selling a Sydney logistics development plot to Gateway Capital for A$78 million ($55.9 million) in May 2026.

    Traditional build-to-rent projects have faced similar pruning. Warburg Pincus-backed Kio Investment Management recently acquired a former Greystar development site in Melbourne’s Collingwood neighbourhood. In Japan, Greystar put several apartment assets on the market to test institutional liquidity.

    Expansion in Seoul and regional funds

    The manager first entered Asia-Pacific in 2017 through a partnership with Macquarie Capital. Over the next nine years, it opened six offices across the region. Growth has since expanded beyond Australia and Japan into mainland Asia.

    In May 2025, the group recruited former Samsung SRA Asset Management executive Junghwan Kang to launch its South Korea platform. Around the same time, the Teacher Retirement System of Texas allocated $25 million to the manager’s Asia-Pacific value-add vehicle.

    When Livelli takes over in Sydney in early 2027, the focus shifts to execution. The firm faces decisions on whether to deploy fresh capital into Korean residential assets or accelerate divestments across its Japanese apartment holdings.