Family Office Am Alpha Sells Tokyo Apartment Building Mitsuis Private Fund
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AM Alpha, a Munich-based global family office, has recently completed the sale of a newly built residential building in the Koto ward of eastern Tokyo, Japan. The buyer of this property, known as Alpha Prime Toyocho, is Mitsui & Co. Realty Management (MBRM), a private fund under Mitsui & Co., one of the largest conglomerates in Japan. The deal was advised by JLL, a leading real estate advisory firm.
This 10-storey building consists of 174 apartments designed for singles and DINKS (dual income, no kids). These apartments come in different configurations including one-room studios, one-bedroom apartments with separate kitchens and dining areas, and one-bedroom apartments with separate living, dining, and kitchen spaces. Made of reinforced concrete, the building was completed in January 2024 and has been awarded the highest rating of five stars by BELS (Building-Housing Energy-Efficiency Labelling System), setting a new benchmark for energy efficiency in the Japanese market.
AM Alpha acquired this property in 2022 while it was still under construction. With over 10 years of experience in the Japanese real estate market, AM Alpha identified this property for its “develop-to-core” investment strategy, which involves developing a high-quality, well-located, and low-risk property or core asset that generates stable and predictable income streams.
“Although the building [Alpha Prime Toyocho] was expected to yield an attractive return, we decided on an early sale,” says Masatomo Okamoto, head of Japan for AM Alpha, in a statement.
Located only a 10-minute walk from Toyocho Station on the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line, the building is easily accessible and only seven to nine minutes by train from Nihonbashi Station and Otemachi Station. Masayuki Takahashi, senior director of capital markets for JLL Japan, states that residential properties continue to be a sought-after asset class for both domestic and international investors due to their stable earnings and high rental growth rates.
Divesting the building has allowed AM Alpha to “realize the value growth and reinvest the capital in new, growth-oriented projects that align with our long-term strategy,” according to Okamoto.
This is not the only property that AM Alpha is divesting. Last month, the company put up for sale its newly refurbished freehold office building, known as 112 Robinson, located in Singapore’s central business district (CBD). Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) and CBRE have been appointed as joint marketing agents for the property, which has a net lettable area of 91,238 square feet. The asking price for this property is $346.7 million, or $3,800 per square foot.
AM Alpha purchased 112 Robinson in December 2021 for $269.7 million, or $2,925 per square foot on the net lettable area. This divestment comes less than three years after the property was acquired. 112 Robinson consists of an F&B unit on the ground floor and office spaces on the second to 14th floors.
AM Alpha has completed various asset enhancements to the property, including renovating the facade, adding an F&B space in the lobby, refurbishing common areas, and installing a nursing room and end-of-trip facilities. The property has also been awarded a BCA Green Mark Platinum Super Low Energy rating. Shaun Poh, executive director of capital markets at C&W, states that these enhancements have given the property a fresh new look.
112 Robinson is conveniently located near four MRT stations, including Telok Ayer on the Downtown Line, Shenton Way on the Thomson-East Coast Line, Tanjong Pagar on the East-West Line, and Raffles Place MRT Interchange for the North-South and East-West Lines. This property is almost fully leased with a well-managed lease expiry profile, according to Michael Tay, head of capital markets at CBRE. Interested buyers can submit their offers through an expression of interest, which will close on July 18.
Through this sale, AM Alpha continues to follow its timing-driven, value-add real estate strategy, divesting assets at the right time to generate maximum returns and reinvesting the capital in new projects that align with their long-term investment goals.