LaSalle Investment Management, the fund-management arm of Jones Lang LaSalle, is the latest foreign firm looking at the Hong Kong real-estate market.
Samuel Whiffin, managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle Hong Kong, said LaSalle intended to pour US$1 billion into the Asia-Pacific market in two to three years.
He said its funds already had invested in the United States and Europe, and now had a strong interest in investing in Asia-Pacific. It was looking at the Hong Kong market, but no specific target was set.
Mr Whiffin said although LaSalle was a subsidiary of the property consultancy group, it was a separate and stand-alone business. The company has US$24 billion under management globally.
He said Hong Kong's office market would see more take-up next year, while the residential market, both mass and luxury, would be more active.
As vacancy rates in the office market now were below 10 per cent and the US economy was improving, he believed transaction volume would increase in the first two quarters of next year, while rents and prices would pick up in the second half.