panese congMori, a Jalomerate, has broken its lull and announced plans to invest $1.2 billion in new real estate.

 

After a four-year hiatus, Japanese billionaire Akira Mori revealed that his Tokyo-based Mori Trust Co. will begin purchasing properties worth up to 100 billion yen ($1.2 billion) in Tokyo, New York, and London. Mori Trust Co. is the most profitable privately owned construction company in Japan. qatar sales

Mori's business will be making its first big investment since the end of Japan's real estate boom in 2008. Mori's announcement comes as the yen rises and local real estate prices rebound.

Mori stated that his company's overseas acquisitions will be focused on properties whose values can endure market downturns, and that the company may consider partnering with other investors in major cities like New York and London.

"When the market is weak, property in a desirable location is good because it appears to be the last to drop in value," Mori said, referring to properties in New York City. "The cheapest assets are the first to depreciate and the last to recover."

Mori, 76, said he wants to buy Class A office towers and will concentrate on designing "smart" buildings that are energy efficient and have disaster-prevention systems.

The office vacancy rate in Tokyo has fallen for four months in a row, to 8.7% in October, after reaching a new high in June, as excess supply has decreased, according to Miki Shoji Co., an office brokerage firm.

Mori said, "Rent decline has slowed." "A building's return is greater than the cost of borrowing. It's simple to buy because interest rates are so low."

Mori Trust, which has a 95 percent occupancy rate for its houses, expects to increase rents next year, according to Mori.

According to Mori, the organization will also consider acquiring residential developers as demand for serviced apartments and homes for the elderly grows. According to Bloomberg statistics, a quarter of Japan's 127 million people will be 65 or older in 2014, compared to 14 percent in the United States.

According to Bloomberg, Mori is taking advantage of the yen's strength to pursue overseas opportunities.

Mori Trust, which has avoided buying in order to concentrate on strengthening its finances, increased its capital ratio to 26.3 percent in March from 17.5 percent in March 2008, the year when global funding dried up following the fall of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Mori told Bloomberg, "This is the ideal time to invest." "We have continued to develop new buildings, but our strategy for building acquisition will be the first since Lehman went bankrupt."

In the last five years, the yen has risen 35 percent against the dollar, and it now trades in the range of 81.90 yen per dollar.

According to the company's website, Mori Trust owns 67 buildings in Japan, including the Tokyo Shiodome Building in a commercial district near Tokyo Bay, and operates around 30 hotels.

For the fiscal year ending March 31, the company made a profit of 16 billion yen, nearly double that of Mori Building Co., which was owned by his older brother, Minoru Mori. Minoru Mori died of heart failure on March 8th.

Mori is putting his own money into things other than real estate.

This year, Mori's MA Platform Group, a Tokyo-based corporation, became the largest shareholder in Tsingda eEdu Corp., which provides English lessons over the Internet in China.

According to the companies, Tsingda eEdu, based in Beijing, has partnered with Berlitz Corp., based in Princeton, New Jersey, to provide online courses to children as well as overseas study programs for elementary and junior high school students.