Japanese investors’ strong appetite in 2024 for commercial real estate investment in Australia is set to surpass their capital flows into US real estate for the first time in at least 10 years, according to a late October 2024 report from Cushman & Wakefield, citing data from MSCI.

Year-to-date, Japanese investment in Australian property assets had reached US$1.76 billion, topping the US$1.31 billion recorded for the United States.

Speaking at a Cushman & Wakefield event in Tokyo on 22 October, Gordon Marsden, the firm’s head of capital markets, Asia Pacific, said that while the United States and European markets remained front-of-mind for Japanese investors, especially given recent interest-rate adjustments, their actual deployment of capital signalled something different.

“The appetite for outbound investments from Japanese investors has surged in recent years, particularly since 2023, as they seek higher yields and diversification,” Marsden sa