SEB Asset Management has sold the AEON Mall Chiba NEW TOWN in Chiba, Japan, to a Japanese company. Completed in 2007, the shopping centre was bought for SEB Asian Property Fund, the Luxembourg-based special real estate fund, in 2009. The selling price was the equivalent of approximately €100m, 12.6 per cent higher than the purchase price.
The AEON Mall Chiba NEW TOWN is leased to operator AEON Mall as the general tenant until 2027. It offers a combination of more than 130 shops, a cinema as well as fitness and leisure facilities on almost 33,500 sqm of rental space. Chiba New Town is located in the immediate vicinity of Tokyo, Japan’s capital city. The Chiba region gives the shopping centre a catchment area with more than 400,000 inhabitants.
Measured in terms of retail sales, Japan is one of the largest consumer markets in Asia. Around 35 million people live in the greater Tokyo area alone. Nevertheless, the retail market environment is faced with a number of structural and cyclical challenges. These include the increase in the age and decrease in the size of the population, persistent deflation and high government debt. Retail sales barely increased in 2012. Turbulence may also occur as a result of the VAT increase planned for April 2014. However, central retail locations are expected to record a stable performance thanks to the expansion of international retail companies.
