(Corrects day in paragraph 1 to Friday from Thursday)
TOKYO, March 27 (Reuters) - LaSalle Investment Management has 200 to 250 billion yen ($2 billion to $2.6 billion) to invest in Japanese property and it may re-enter the residential market, a company executive said on Friday.
Japan's property market has been hit hard by the credit crunch with dozens of developers having collapsed since last year. Cash-tight developers and REITs' efforts to sell off property for cash are putting downward pressure on prices.
A big amount of assets has been up for sale but transactions have been slow with the gap between bids and offers remaining wide.
Yasuo Nakashima, chief executive officer of LaSalle's Japan arm, said that gap would begin to narrow towards the end of this year and early next year, and transactions would likely pick up, offering good buying opportunities.
"Prices may fall further from that point, but they should be cheap enough to buy from the medium- to long-term perspective," Nakashima told Reuters in an interview.
"Luckly in Japan, we still have 200 to 250 billion yen of equity that has not been invested," he said.
LaSalle, a unit of property services firm Jones Lang LaSalle Inc, has $41.1 billion in assets under management globally.
LaSalle may re-enter the Japanese residential market as it has become attractive due to falling prices, Nakashima said. LaSalle has not invested in the Japanese housing market since 2004.
"There are chances to buy residential assets at a discount," he said, adding that LaSalle was eyeing densely populated areas. (Reporting by Eriko Amaha and Mariko Katsumura; Editing by Chris Gallagher)