Japan Retail Fund Investment Corp., the country’s largest commercial property fund, said it may sell 32.3bn yen ($346m) of buildings earlier than it had expected as Japan’s real estate market shows signs of recovery.

Japan Retail Fund, a venture between Mitsubishi Corp., the nation’s largest trading company, and UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank, merged with LaSalle Japan Reit in March and expected to sell a total of 18 properties from LaSalle in two to three years. The trust now expects to sell the properties around the end of August, said Takuya Kuga, president of Mitsubishi Corp. UBS Realty, the fund’s manager.

“The market conditions have turned favorable since we announced the merger in October,” said Kuga in an interview in Tokyo yesterday. “We are hoping to sell the office portfolio together with residential buildings.”

bloomberg.com