In a real estate forecast report jointly published by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Singapore’s real estate investment market has been ranked second in Asia Pacific region.
The report is entitled Emerging Trends in Real Estate Asia Pacific 2019. In it, the top five Asia Pacific markets for investment and development in 2019 were listed as Melbourne, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Osaka.
The city state has risen to the second place from third last year mainly because of a large number of major office deals in the past 12 months. A lack of supply and revived tenant demand has led to rising office rents while coworking and other flexible office space operators are now among the biggest lessors of office space. Singapore’s residential market remains exceptionally resilient despite several cooling measures that have been put in place in the last few years, while economic growth and high visitor numbers have supported rents and yields for prime retail space.
In the report, several other concepts were also discussed, including the concept of co-living which was explored as a template for the future in cities including Hong Kong and other cities on mainland China.
The emerging trend report identifies trends including investors’ interest in value-add plays, or assets upgraded with more flexibility, better user experience, as well as design and technology improvements. It is based on the opinions of 350 real estate professionals including investors, developers, property company representatives, lenders, brokers and consultants. It provides an outlook on Asia Pacific real estate investment and development trends, real estate finance and capital markets, and trends by property sector and metropolitan area; and is being released over a series of events across Asia.