* NPS sees opportunities in property market
* Building sold by Japanese property firm Kenedix
SEOUL, July 2 (Reuters) - South Korea's National Pension Service (NPS) on Thursday said it would jointly buy an office building in central Tokyo with private equity firm The Carlyle Group for about 460 billion won ($362 million).
The world's No.4 pension fund, managing $200 billion, said in a statement that KDX Toyosu Grandsquare building was expected to yield stable rental income over the long term.
NPS said it would pay 4.9 percent of the purchase price, with Carlyle taking up the remainder.
The building is being sold by Kenedix Inc. The Japanese property firm said it would make a profit on the deal without giving further details.
"With the investment, NPS plans to expand direct investments in prime property assets in major cities such as New York, London, Paris and Syndey," the statement added.
"Returns from property investment have improved sharply since the real estate market underwent price corrections at a rapid pace from the last part of 2008."
NPS has earmarked 5 percent of its 2009 assets for alternative investments, most of which will be spent on foreign assets.
In 2010, the pension fund plans to raise the portion of alternative assets to 6.4 percent.
Kim Hee-seok, head of NPS' global investment team, told Reuters on Tuesday that it had earmarked most of a $2 billion alternative investment budget for the second half of this year for property.
The Tokyo building purchase comes after Carlyle on Tuesday said it raised $1.04 billion for its fourth Asian growth capital fund, a 46 percent increase from the previous fund size.
Separately, NPS officials said preliminary agreements with other private equity funds -- Blackstone Group, Oaktree Capital Management and MBK Partners -- had yet to produce joint investments. ($1=1271.9 Won) (Reporting by Kim Yeon-hee; Editing by Chris Lewis)