J.P. Morgan Asset Management — Real Estate Asia Pacific announced the appointment of James Santi as executive director and acquisitions officer, Australia and New Zealand. In this newly created role, Santi will be based in the Sydney office and report to Daniel McDonald, head of Australia and New Zealand, J.P. Morgan Asset Management — Real Estate Asia Pacific. Santi will be responsible for and leads the origination, underwriting, due diligence and transaction execution of real estate acquisitions in Australia and New Zealand.

J.P. Morgan Asset Management's Real Estate Asia Pacific team includes more than 50 real estate professionals operating from six offices throughout Asia Pacific — Hong Kong, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo.

Commenting on the new hire, David Chen, head of real estate Asia Pacific at J.P. Morgan Asset Management said, "Given their favourable economic and real estate market fundamentals, Australia/New Zealand offer our clients the prospect of enhanced risk-adjusted returns over the long term with low correlation to the US and European market cycles. As clients increase their allocations to core Asia Pacific real estate, we are adding resources like Santi with deep local and regional experience and a proven acquisition track record." Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Santi was senior director of capital markets at CBRE where he led the firm's industrial and logistics investment sales platform for New South Wales.