Global investors, who favored Japanese real estate earlier this year, are holding off investments following the March 11 calamity and nuclear crisis, according to CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.
Japan was the most popular property investment destination in Asia in the first quarter, attracting 37 percent of funds, according to Nick Axford, head of research for Asia-Pacific at CB Richard Ellis, the world's largest commercial real estate broker. The latest survey showed they're now more bearish.
"There is still a lot of uncertainty about how this is going to affect the economy," Axford said in an interview Thursday in Tokyo. "There are a number of risks there, making it difficult to identify what the right pricing is."
Some investors have temporarily shifted investments, while others are seeking bargains in the country, Axford said.
The number of investors who were bearish or fairly bearish on central Tokyo's office sector almost doubled to 11, from six, after the quake, while those who were bullish fell to 20 from 27, according to a poll of 58 firms for that area.
For the Tokyo Bay area, where the temblor affected the soil quality in a phenomenon called liquefaction, the number of investors who were fairly bearish or bearish rose to 37 from 19 among 47 respondents.