Morgan Stanley has won the fiercely contested bidding to buy 13 hotels from All Nippon Airways, the Japanese airline, for Y281.3bn ($2.4bn), in the largest property deal to date in Japan.

The deal, which overshadows the sale last year of Richard Li’s Pacific Century Group building in Tokyo to KK Da Vinci Advisers, Japan’s largest private real estate fund, for Y200bn, highlights the recent sharp rebound of Japan’s property market.