| Lendlease chief executive Tony Lombardo has held talks with top executives at some of Japan’s biggest developers and banks over the past week as part of the Australian company’s strategy to direct more Japanese capital back into Australia’s property market.
While forming relationships with Japanese companies can be notoriously time-consuming, Mr Lombardo said their Tokyo-based partners could move quickly on deals once the trust was established. Lendlease said its investment relationship with Japan goes both ways. It is pursuing urbanisation projects in Tokyo where demand for housing and office space that meet green energy targets is growing despite the country’s overall demographic crisis. Tokyo has a population of around 37 million.
Lendlease also has a US$1 billion partnership to invest in data centres across the Asia Pacific. Construction started on the first data centre in Japan’s Saitama city last year and the first phase is due to be completed in 2024. Mr Lombardo said the company was looking at other potential locations with a second data centre expected to be built in Japan, and possibly one in Malaysia under the partnership.
Replace Japan with China and imagine the uproar