Boom in Korean Based Investors

KOREAN-based investors have emerged as one of the biggest buyers of Australian commercial real estate since the 2008 economic downturn.

In one of the most recent moves, Ikogest Asia, a Luxembourg-based, Korean-backed pension fund, reportedly made an offer to pay about $200 million for the industrial holdings, and part of a float being offloaded by Melbourne-based developer Salta Properties.

Singapore's GIC is now reportedly investigating that portfolio.

South Korea's National Pension Service recently spent $685 million on Sydney's landmark Aurora Place, while another company, Mirae,paid Energex $20.12 million for a site in South Brisbane.

"They have cheap cost of capital and are total-return focused, so from a diversification perspective, the Australian real estate market ticks all the boxes," McVay Real Estate director Sam McVay said in the AFR.

Elsewhere in the country, South Korean developer Dong Yeon and the Global Group of companies is paying about $60 million for the Lakelands golf course development on the Gold Coast.

Another South Korean company, Lotte, recently took control of a $650 million masterplanned community Salacia Waters, at Paradise Point.