Hongkong Land has launched Singapore’s largest private retail fund, as the 137-year-old property developer embarks on a strategic pivot towards fund management and commercial properties under CEO Michael Smith.
The Singapore Central Private Real Estate Fund (SCPREF) will focus on prime commercial assets in the country’s central business district, and with around 8.2 billion Singapore dollars ($6.5 billion) in assets. SCPREF’s initial portfolio comprises several buildings in Singapore’s CBD: Asia Square Tower 1, One Raffles Link, Marina Bay Link Mall and Towers 1 and 2 of the Marina Bay Financial Center.
“Going forward, we imagine ourselves having a series of funds with high-quality investors alongside us, creating fund management revenue,” Smith tells Fortune.
Among those high-quality investors, at least for SCPREF, are sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and APG Asset Management, a part of the Dutch pension fund. Smith added that an “established Southeast Asian sovereign wealth fund” had also invested, though declined to specify which one.
Private real estate funds are especially appealing to sovereign wealth funds, since they afford certainty in returns, Smith explains. “Sovereign wealth funds have capital to deploy, but it needs to be protected—and these funds meet those needs.”
The QIA, in a statement, said its participation in SCPREF “underscores its strategy of partnering with best-in-class operators to access high-quality real assets in key global markets and generate resilient long-term returns.”
He hopes the fund can grow to a valuation of $15 billion. (The SCPREF is an open-ended fund that does not have a fixed term, which allows more investors to join.)
Singapore’s property market has boomed in recent years, with real estate investment sales growing by 27% in 2025 to hit $26.9 billion, its highest level since 2017.
Hongkong Land is bullish on Singapore’s commercial real estate market. “The latest new supply has been absorbed, the government has no intention of increasing office land supply within the central business district,” Michelle Ling, Hongkong Land’s chief investment officer, explains.
Hongkong Land shares, which are traded in Singapore, fell by 0.6% on Feb. 4, erasing early morning gains. Shares in the developer, which is majority owned by Global 500 conglomerate Jardine Matheson, have doubled in value over the past 12 months.
A new era for a century-old company
Sir Paul Chater and James Johnstone Keswick founded Hongkong Land in 1889. Chater, at the time, spearheaded one of the earliest land reclamations along Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor, which eventually became the city’s Central business district. Hongkong Land remains one of the largest landlords in Central; the developer manages about $40 billion of assets overall.
In the century since its founding, Hongkong Land has expanded into regional markets like mainland China, Singapore, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines.
Still, the developer has been battered by property market weakness in both mainland China and Hong Kong, as well as struggles in its residential developments in general. “We had apartments in Cebu in the Philippines, and in Wuhan and Bangkok—but we never had sufficient scale in any of those markets to be a meaningful player,” Smith explains.
Hongkong Land reported $751 million in revenue over the first six months of 2025, a 23% drop year-on-year. The developer earned $222 million in post-tax profit over the same period, compared to an $828 million loss the year before. (Hongkong Land’s losses last year were widened by non-cash impairments.)
Smith took over as Hongkong Land’s CEO in 2024, after spending more than 11 years at Singapore developer Mapletree, most recently as its regional CEO, and an executive board member of the firm’s industrial trust.
Since taking over as Hongkong Land’s chief executive, Smith has embarked on a pivot to double down on commercial properties and fund management, while shedding its less lucrative residential businesses. The developer no longer pursues the build-to-sell market, where projects are completed before being sold to prospective buyers. Last November, it sold off one of its residential arms, MCL Land, to Malaysia’s Sunway Group for $579 million.
Other property developers, like CapitaLand and Mapletree, are also pursuing asset-light models, which they claim will make them more agile and reduce debt.
Smith wants the developer to be more active regarding the property market. “We’ve had these great assets, but we’ve been a bit like a herbivore. We’ve just been collecting rent, and haven’t done much more than that with them over many years,” he quips.
And he’s looking beyond just Singapore, with an eye to expand commercial real estate development and fund management services to “gateway cities” in Asia, citing Tokyo, Seoul and Sydney as examples.
What makes a “gateway city”? Stock exchanges, professional services, and startups, Smith says. “Where the finance and tech bros all want to be, we want to be.”
