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Asia Pacific equities reversed two months of consecutive declines to record their best monthly performance since December last year. The benchmark, which has been roiled by China’s regulatory crackdown in sectors from technology, education and property, rose 2.5% in August to outperform the regional property counters. Investors took heart at comments made from the Fed’s closely watched annual Jackson Hole meeting, after the Fed Chair reiterated that tapering does not mean tightening. The region’s markets also cheered after the Chinese central bank made its biggest weekly cash injection into the banking system since February. Still, the bounce came after July’s pummeling as it continued to lag the region’s property counters year-to-date with just 2.4% returned, as compared to the region’s real estate and REIT benchmarks tracked by GPR/APREA, which had risen 5.5% and 10.7,% respectively.

Despite rapid growth in inbound demand in recent years driven by a sharp increase in overseas visitors, Japan’s retail and hotel markets remain overwhelmingly driven by domestic demand.

Therefore, while a recovery in inbound tourism is still some time away, Japan can be said to have rapid recovery potential, should domestic demand return.

CBRE believes the return of domestic demand is imminent, with pent-up demand steadily accumulating due to restrained consumption and various benefits and incentives provided by the government. 

This demand is likely to materialise in the form of consumption for higher-end goods and services, trends that auger well for Japan’s retail and hotel sectors, especially the higher-end segments.

This article was originally published in https://www.cbre.com/

H 1 2021 transaction volumes were close to the six monthly average observed over the past five years

Office and industrial sales lead the New Zealand market The top three largest sales above 100 million were office assets

Vacant land/development sites show a lift in sales volumes

Singapore based investors were the most active of the offshore groups, with a smaller proportion of investment by Malaysian and Australian buyers

Investment activity is dominated by private buyers 52 followed by institutions 34 and syndicates 7 However, privates are net sellers, while institutions and syndicates are net buyers

This article was originally published in https://www.cbre.com/

• Compared with an average of over 3,500 units launched over the last three quarters, developers slowed down and launched a total of 2,356 private residential units in Q2/2021.
• With fewer new launches, the total new sales volume fell 15.1% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to 2,966 units in Q2/2021.
• The sales momentum in the secondary market continued to pick up in Q2, with total resale volume rising by 19.0% QoQ to a new record high of 5,483 units.
• The Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) property price index of residential properties rose by 0.8% QoQ in Q2, slowing down from the 3.3% QoQ increase in Q1. This was largely because prices of landed homes ended their short-lived growth with a 0.3% QoQ decline, while non-landed homes saw a slower increase of 1.1% QoQ in Q2.
• The average prices of Savills’ basket of high-end non-landed private residential projects also saw a moderated increase of 0.4% QoQ to S$2,434 per sq ft in Q2.
• Unless there is serious contagion arising from China Evergrande, prices are expected to rise by 5.5% year-on-year (YoY) in 2021 with another 5% in 2022.

This article was originally published in https://www.savills.com/