Fortress Becomes Japan’s Biggest Private Apartment Landlord
Fortress is shaking up the world of Japanese real estate with a billion-dollar bet on low-rent apartments. Fortress is ignoring prestige assets that attract many foreign investors in favor of dated units on the outskirts of big cities—and in the process it has become the largest private owner of apartments in Japan. The company is doing away with local rental practices and courting foreign residents—an opportunistic move because the government is boosting the number of foreign workers in the country to address a labor shortage caused by a shrinking population. “We are seeing Japan opening its doors,” said Thomas Pulley, head of real estate at Fortress. Fortress bought more than 100,000 affordable housing units from the Japanese government in 2017 for ¥60 billion ($553 million) and says it has budgeted about that amount for renovations.
Tags : INTERNATIONAL