According to “Emerging Trends in Real Estate® Asia Pacific 2008,” just published by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo rank as the three most promising Asia Pacific cities in terms of real estate investment prospects.
David Sandison, a Tax Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Singapore said, “It is expected that even greater amounts of capital will be flooding Asia Pacific real estate markets in 2008. The real challenge for investors will lie in finding the right assets against the backdrop of yield compression and scrutiny by regional governments and tax authorities.”
Shanghai topped the list for investment prospects, edged up from its second-place ranking last year. Singapore received the highest rating of any of the cities included in the report in terms of overall risk.
February 2007
Rampant inflation; shaky, low interest no-deposit loans; 400 per cent stock market growth in 2 years; property values rising nearly 18 per cent over last year’s values.
Even for us, it is sometimes difficult to sort the informational wheat from the chaff and we are looking at conflicting reports coming from the Indian property markets at the moment.
It seems to me, the Dubai city planners may have watched the Kevin Costner movie, “Field of Dreams,” one too many times. But they weren’t far wrong. They did build it and they did come. In fact, they are still coming and the planned developments over the next few years should bring even more. I found some interesting photos of Dubai which show the development over the last few years. The first one is taken in 1989 and the second in 2005. Spot the difference? There has been quite a stunning amount of development in Dubai, and these two photograph, seen together, graphically demonstrate that fact. The next few are some projections of future developments. It’s hard to see an end in sight, with the ‘Palm Islands” and “World Archipelago” developments pushing the boundaries even further.
To a certain extent, the decision to buy off plan or a second hand home depends on the market concerned. In a fast moving market, off plan will be a far more appealing and practical investment than in a stagnant market. Here is a comparison and a list of potential advantages and disadvantages. First the difference between off plan and on plan needs defining. On-plan is a property that has already been constructed, perhaps even changed hands several times already. Off-plan is a property that is literally off the plans, meaning construction may not even have started yet. Some of the most important things to take into consideration when looking at off-plan investments are: The state of the market. Is it buoyant or stagnant? The reputations of the builder and promoter. Are they reliable? Do they have strong track record of completing projects on time and to specification?
