SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - Ascott Residence Trust (ART) will invest about JPY 10.4 billion ($125 million) to acquire four rental housing properties and its first student accommodation property in Japan.

See also: Ascott establishes new student accommodation development venture with Riyad Capital

The transactions, when completed, will increase its pro forma FY 2021 distribution per stapled security by approximately 1.7%.

The five properties, to be acquired from two different sellers, are expected to be completed between 1Q2022 and 2Q2023.

Three of the rental housing properties are located in Central Osaka while one rental housing property is located in Fukuoka. The student accommodation property is located in Osaka, serving the main campus of Kindai University (KU), which is a two-minute walk away. KU has over 30,000 undergraduate students.

With these latest acquisitions, ART has invested about $905 million in longer-stay properties since January 2021, and increased its longer-stay properties to 17% of its total portfolio value.

ART has a medium-term target to increase this proportion to 25-30%.

According to Beh Siew Kim, CEO of Ascott Residence Trust Management and Ascott Business Trust Management, ART’s longer-stay properties are expected to contribute 17% to its gross profit, up from 15% in FY2021.

“The addition of four more rental housing properties will boost the overall resilience of our portfolio,” she adds.

With the five acquisitions, ART has a total of 2,500 units across 19 rental housing and student accommodation properties in Japan.