Mitsubishi Estate Co., Japan's biggest property developer by market value, said it will set up a real estate fund in the U.S. this year and seek takeovers overseas to counter declining demand at home.
"We cannot just sit back and be satisfied with what we've built over the years at home as demand will probably remain weak and competition will increase," Chief Executive Officer Keiji Kimura said in a recent interview in Tokyo. "We believe this is a good time to start building up our global platform."
His plans come as commercial property sales in Manhattan, the biggest and most expensive U.S. office market, tripled in value in the first quarter from a year earlier. Office vacancies in Tokyo are at a record high and commercial land prices declined to the lowest in at least 36 years.