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Investors from Singapore spent more money on expensive properties in the Asia Pacific region last year, with investments in other regional markets surpassing their domestic acquisitions, reported the Business Times.
According to statistics from Real Capital Analytics (RCA), which tracks single or portfolio acquisitions worth at least US$10 million (S$14.3 million), outbound property investments in the region by Singapore investors surged by 31.8 percent to US$9.7 billion, while local purchases fell by 20.7 percent to US$4.8 billion.
“With cooling measures still in force in their home market, Singapore developers have continued to look for opportunities abroad,” said Sigrid Zialcita, Cushman & Wakefield’s Managing Director for Asia Pacific Research.
The property consultancy revealed that Singaporeans and the Chinese were the region’s top real estate investors, accounting for a third of overall foreign investments in Asia Pacific.
In fact, the largest standalone investment in the region last year was the S$4.1 billion acquisition of Century Link, a commercial complex in Shanghai’s Pudong district, by a fund established by China Life, South Korea’s Peninsular Investment Partners, and Singapore-listed ARA Asset Management.
Investors from the city-state also preferred to buy land and office buildings, with such assets making up 24 percent of all global acquisitions by this group last year.
Zialcita said Singaporeans are keen on such properties as prime office assets in the region’s gateway markets are in high demand by core investors due to their limited supply. These are also expected to generate good revenue thanks to their healthy occupancy rates.
She also believes that Singapore developers and institutional investors like real estate investment trusts (REITs) will remain as the most dominant outbound investors in Asia Pacific. These firms are also likely to increase their exposure in emerging markets of Southeast Asia and India.
Meanwhile, the most popular overseas real estate markets for Singapore investors in 2016 were China, Australia, the US and the UK.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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