London now Norwegian fund’s top destination

OSLO: London has overtaken New York as the top destination for the Norwegian wealth fund’s unlisted real estate investments, a fund report showed.

The US$1 trillion fund is focusing on investing in 10 locations, which it considers to be global cities that are expected to grow in terms of numbers, employment and trade.

London, New York and Paris accounted for 22.8%, 21.5% and 19.1% of the fund’s unlisted property investments in 2017.

In 2016, New York was first, followed by London and Paris, accounting for 19.2%, 17% and 13.1%, of these investments respectively.

The fund’s unlisted real estate investments corresponded to 2.6% of overall assets at end-2017. Its target is to invest up to 7% of its value in such properties over time.

The fund is a co-owner of London’s Regent Street and properties on the Champs-Elysees in Paris and Hudson Square in New York. It funnels the revenues from Norway’s oil and gas production, investing in stocks, bonds and real estate.

The fund made its first unlisted real estate investment in Asia, in Tokyo in December, and has eyed investing in Singapore, although it has yet to make a purchase in the city-state.

The fund invested 15 billion Norwegian crowns (US$1.94bil) in unlisted real estate in 2017, taking its total holdings to 219 billion crowns.