Singapore has stepped up in its place and ranked top for real estate investment prospects in terms of price increases in 2020 according to an Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers report released on property trends in the region.
Singapore has benefited from an uptick in interest among investors who are avoiding China and Hong Kong. There has also been a pick up in luxury home sales, gold storage and foreign currency deposits.
Over the past few quarters, apartment prices have rebounded in Singapore, signalling resilience in the residential market, while the office sector has largely absorbed the oversupply, re-instilling confidence in the market.
Singapore was also one of the few markets regionally to see a jump in property transactions in the first half of 2019, with most activity driven by cross-border capital.
The Emerging Trends in Real Estate Asia Pacific 2020 investment prospect rankings reflect investor preference for regional markets that are large, liquid and defensive.
From a purely residential-investment outlook for 2020, Vietnam looks to be a bright spot, with Bangkok, Singapore, Shenzhen and Sydney rounding out the top five.