The Duke of Westminster’s property empire is ramping up exposure to Asia mainly through luxury residential developments, in a move that goes against the trend of eastern money flowing into western bricks and mortar.
Grosvenor, the property arm of one of the UK’s richest families, is in talks with several investors to create a $700m property investment club that will fund four to six high-end developments in or near Hong Kong, Tokyo, Beijing or Shanghai.
The effort is part of Grosvenor’s longer-term aim to almost treble the share of its money invested in Asia at a time when the slowdown in China is casting a shadow over the region’s economies. The club will add to the HK$12.7bn ($1.6bn) of assets that Grosvenor already manages in the region.