LaSalle Investment Management has appointed David Edwards to the role of fund president of the firm's Asia Property Fund.

His previous role as Asia Pacific head of research and strategy has been taken over by Kenneth Tsang who joins from ING Real Estate Management in Hong Kong where he was responsible for the firm's strategy and research functions in Asia.

The Asia Property Fund is a core, pan-Asia Pacific, open-ended fund for institutional investors and pension schemes, and is co-sponsored by property fund managers, LaSalle Investment Management and a UK-based partner, the property investment management subsidiary of Prudential plc,

LaSalle's recently release Investment Strategy Annual 2009 has claimed re-pricing of real estate is now well underway. It said while securitised real estate - both debt and equity - has already gone through several rounds of violent and volatile re-pricing, private equity real estate will now follow.

In terms of a more defensive approach, LaSalle suggested an emphasis on markets and sectors that are recession-resistant. These include healthcare, federal or national government capitals and necessity (as opposed to discretionary) retail.

Opportunistic sectors include: REIT shares trading at a massive discounts, fund units trading at steep discounts, non-performing loans or pools of partially performing loans, and defaulted land deals or development deals in need of recapitalisation, but priced such that investors get incomplete improvements at close to zero cost.

Commenting on the outlook for the Asia-Pacific region, Edwards said: "Although growth in the region is likely to exceed other major regions, the slower prospects for the US and Europe will continue to degrade prospects for 2009-2010. Japan will struggle with a weak export environment, India will be adversely affected by slower investment in IT and China will be affected as export demand weakens."