Savills Investment Management, the $27 billion property investment arm of London-listed real estate group Savills, has opened its first office in Australia where it will target the growing appetite among superannuation funds for global real estate. 
"We already manage investments in Australia in a number of our funds," Justin O'Connor, CEO of Savills Investment Management, told The Australian Financial Review.
"We want to increase our exposure to the Australian market and the best way to do that is to have a local presence."
Mr O'Connor said he expected what had already occurred in Canada, where Canadian pension funds have become very big global investors, to happen in Australia through its super funds. "It's already started," he said.
London-based Savills Investment Management manages about EUR18 billion ($27 billion) in assets across Europe and Japan on behalf of institutional investors, private banks and wealth managers through pooled property funds, separate accounts and investment mandates.
Jennifer Johnstone-Kaiser, who has held senior real estate roles at consultants Mercer and Pinnacle Property Group, has been appointed to lead the Sydney office and roll out the Savills platform in Australia.
"The top 20 or 30 super funds have $70 to $80 billion to allocate to real estate and the next 100 funds have about $110 billion to allocate," Ms Johnstone-Kaiser said.
"To deploy all of that capital in a market like Australia that is 2-3 per cent of the world's commercial property market causes all kinds of pressures. So we think super funds, if they have not done so already, will be looking to diversify offshore."
Ms Johnstone-Kaiser said the Sydney office would "reach out to the new funds as they come to the marketplace, to assist them to deploy capital here or overseas".
"This could be through co-investment, through our funds management platform or mandates," she said. "Early discussions with some super funds have shown an appetite for European retail property."
Ms Johnstone-Kaiser said the likes of AustralianSuper, Sunsuper and QSuper had been investing offshore "for some time".