CLSA Capital Partners, a unit of Credit Agricole, aims to buy two to three properties in Tokyo this year through an $816m real estate fund as it takes advantage of declining prices and a recovery in credit markets.

The Fudo Capital II fund may invest about 200 billion yen ($2.1bn) including loans, said Hirotaka Uchiyama, the head of Fudo-Japan. The fund is the second set up by the alternative asset management arm of CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets to focus on properties in the Asia- Pacific region.

CLSA Capital Partners is betting that commercial real estate prices in Japan will recover as credit becomes more available after the global credit crisis and after commercial land prices in the country fell to the lowest in at least 36 years in 2009.

bloomberg.com