Henderson Global Investors is poised to launch a $1bn (£500m) fund focused on Asian real estate.

The fund manager's move is the latest sign of institutions warming to global property. Henderson Asia Pacific Indirect Property Fund (Pagoda) will invest in listed and unlisted property vehicles in the Asia-Pacific region. Its exposure will cover established economies such as Australia, Japan and South Korea and emerging markets such as Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Chris Reilly, head of Henderson Property in Asia, said there would be a strong focus on India and China, the region’s two dominant economies. The fund will be targeted mainly at pension funds and other institutions in the UK and Europe, although Asian investors will also be approached.

The shares of global listed property securities, which rose 341 per cent in the four years from March 2003, fell during June after interest rate rises in most leading economies. Real estate markets are sensitive to borrowing costs as investors are often highly geared.

The Asia-Pacific region was not immune from the trend, with Japanese real estate investment trusts and other property securities losing value last month. But Mr Reilly said there remained strong opportunities in the region: for example several Hong Kong Reits with dividend yields of 8 per cent.

Occupier markets in Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo were also on an upward swing with low vacancy rates and rising rents, he said.

The launch comes amid anecdotal evidence that many UK institutions are moving part of their real estate allocations from the domestic market towards other countries offering a positive gap between debt costs and yields.

Increasingly, they are gaining overseas exposure via indirect vehicles such as funds of property securities.

CBRE Investors, the fund management wing of global agents CB Richard Ellis, is poised to announce that it has raised €542m (£367m) from 22 British pension funds for a mainland Europe property vehicle called The Alpha Fund. “As the UK property market prospects continue to flatten, there is a clear and growing trend for institutional investors to invest more of their property portfolios internationally,” said Jeremy Plummer, managing director of CBRE Investors Global Multi Manager. UK property unit trusts had “queues” of investors six months ago but no longer, he said. “In most cases capital is being reallocated to Europe, all of the big UK multimanager houses...have started to recommend, with the support of consultants, new allocations towards overseas property.”

Signs of a change in sentiment towards UK property funds have emerged in the past week as several big vehicles have changed their pricing policies to cope with slight net outflows. Standard Life, New Star and Prudential are among fund managers to have switched from “offer” to “bid” pricing on certain property funds.