SAO PAULO, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Brazilian asset manager SPX Capital has ambitious plans to bet on its real estate unit, aiming to quintuple the value of its global property assets over the next few years, the unit's Chief Executive Pedro Daltro told Reuters.

Less than a year since it was launched as a joint venture between SPX Capital and SYN Prop Tech, formerly known as Cyrela Commercial Properties, the real estate unit manages a mostly residential portfolio worth about 1.9 billion reais ($360 million). SPX has more than 86 billion reais in overall global assets.

While SPX is about to open an office in Asia in addition to its existing bases in Brazil, the United States, Britain and Portugal, the real estate unit's Daltro believes Brazil's economic outlook is favorable for domestic property assets, highlighting that the benchmark Selic interest rate is expected to drop from the second half of next year.

"A bet of ours and of many in the market is that interest rates should stay high for a period, but start to cool down from the middle of next year," he said. "If this bet is right, taking a position in the Brazilian real estate market now is a smart move."

In SPX's real estate portfolio, residential developments dominate for now, but this is poised to change, with growth in segments such as logistics and in specific corporate assets.

"We want to be in densely populated regions," Daltro said, citing the Greater Sao Paulo area, where SPX's assets are concentrated, and other higher density cities such as Belo Horizonte and Brasilia.

Corporate buildings are also on SPX's radar, which sees office towers coming back strongly in some key regions, like the Faria Lima neighboorhod, known as Sao Paulo's financial and business center, though much less so in other areas.

The demand for such properties "should cool down a little bit," he said, given currently higher rates and a slowing economy.

Uncertainties about monetary policy in other countries still cloud the short-term scenario, he said, though outlining a plan for an investment abroad in the next year.

"At some point next year we will look for something outside of Brazil," Daltro added, citing the U.S. and British markets. With interest rates rising quickly in these markets there will be a lack of capital and opportunities will arise, he said. ($1 = 5.2818 reais) (Reporting by Paula Arend Laier; Writing by Peter Frontini; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)