Investors see value in battered Asian property

Property fund manager LaSalle Investment Management, which raised a $3 billion fund in August, expects Hong Kong and Singapore to recover first from the financial turmoil, its regional director David Edwards said. "We are seeing a decline in values throughout the region. There are properties that are being sold at much lower prices than the market's perception of their values," Edwards said. ING Real Estate plans to double its investments in Asia to $1 billion, with most of its investors in Europe wanting to diversity into the region, said the firm's Asia Pacific managing director Nicholas Wong. ING invested mostly in China and Japan, he said, and was now marketing a $750 million fund to build Chinese housing.