Market Outlook

Despite the easing of Covid’s fifth wave in Hong Kong1, the US Fed increasing interest rates has hindered the investment market recovery and delayed investors’ decision-making in Q2. We expect sentiment will pick up in H2 2022 when investors gain more clarity on the rate hike, economic outlook and more relaxed social-distancing rules.

Supported by the strong demand and rental performance, industrial assets should remain the most preferred asset type, while co-living and residential developments are also attractive given solid housing demand. We expect to see funds and real estate firms, which accounted for 87% of the investment volume in Q2, to remain the key driver of the investment market for rest of 2022.

In H1 2022, despite the economic slowdown in Hong Kong, the market still witnessed solid demand from third-party logistics players (3PLs). This, coupled with tight vacancy, pushed rents up further by 1.1% QOQ in Q2 2022. We recommend landlords or investors consider partnerships with operators from fast-growing sectors like logistics, cold storage, self storage, or data centres by arranging long leases to secure stable rental income and higher yields.

In Q2 2022, the office market witnessed a pickup in momentum driven by rising leasing enquires and inspection activities, but commitment in leasing deals remained slow. The overall vacancy rate continued to climb up during the quarter, rising by 0.4 ppt to 11.2% in Q2 2022.

Favored by decentralization demand from cost-saving tenants, rents in Tsim Sha Tsui and Kowloon East slightly recovered (up 1.1% and 0.8% QOQ, respectively). We recommend occupiers to explore flight-to-quality moves as more available new stock comes online in H2 2022.

Demand for office and industrial assets supports growth across key Asia Pacific markets

HONG KONG, 27 April 2022 – Leading diversified professional services and investment management firm Colliers (NASDAQ and TSX: CIGI) has today released its Asia Pacific Market Snapshot Q1 2022 report, which highlights how major Asia Pacific real estate markets continue to build on a recovery led by gains in the office and industrial segments and are looking forward to a pick-up in dealmaking across segments in the upcoming quarters.

In Australia, easing restrictions brought a return to work and travel, spurring deals worth over USD1 billion in Sydney and Melbourne’s office markets. China too saw demand surge for office space, including in business parks, with key cities witnessing the finalisation of deals worth a combined RMB11 billion (USD1.7 billion). In India, the residential market saw sales surpass pre-2020 levels while strong economic fundamentals triggered an influx of foreign capital. In Singapore, policy measures intended to cool the residential market spurred investments in commercial properties. Japan saw active investment led by REITs across multiple segments, including large office and logistics properties as well as industrial and hotel assets. The report, which examines the previous quarter’s performance of property markets in 16 Asia Pacific countries and territories, also provides forecasts for the current and upcoming quarters.