Real estate investment manager Savills Investment Management has launched a pan-Asian income and growth fund following a first close at US$117 million, which is immediately being invested.

The Savills IM Asia-Pacific Income and Growth Fund (APACIG) focuses on core-plus investments and incorporates a defined value-add component, with the potential to offer co-investment opportunities, and targets an internal rate of return in the region of 8% to 10%, with investments focused on Asia-Pacific’s developed markets and key gateway cities to capitalise on their stability, resilience and liquidity.

The fund, available to institutional investors and family offices, aims for sector diversity and will include offices, logistics/industrial, retail and residential. The target total investment volume is US$1.2 billion, including a maximum debt ratio of 60% at fund level.

APACIG has sustainable characteristics and will set targets across each of the assets to reduce its environmental impact in areas including energy, water, waste, as well as enhancing social value through occupier and community engagement. It is targeting buildings that can provide a value-add opportunity for improving the sustainability credentials of these assets through retrofitting, and those with high sustainability characteristics.

Alongside the launch of APACIG, Savills has expanded its presence in the region with several senior appointments in its Sydney office. Greg Lapham has been appointed as head of investment, Australia. Lapham, who will manage APACIG and lead the newly appointed four-strong investment team in Sydney, has over 30 years’ experience across real estate investment, financial reporting, corporate finance, consulting and transaction advisory.

He has demonstrable local market knowledge having spent the last decade in Hong Kong, recently returning to Australia, and has invested across the breadth of the Asia-Pacific region, including in Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Lapham joined Savills from BlackRock, where he was a managing director and chief investment officer of the Asia-Pacific real estate business. He will be supported by investment director Guy Sainsbury, who recently joined Savills from Lendlease, where he held various senior development, capital-raising and origination roles.

The Sydney-based team has also been strengthened with the appointments of Anthony Lupis, investment manager, and Jacob van Egmond as an investment analyst. This follows the recent expansion of Savills’ established investment team in Japan.