Property investors in Asia have got a positive outlook for the region’s property market in 2013, with 70 percent likely to expand their investment and property portfolio, according to Colliers International’s Global Investor Sentiment Survey 2012.
The survey also revealed that 79 percent of respondents prefer to invest in Asia for the next 12 months, citing Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Beijing as the top five most preferred locations.
Surachet Kongcheep, Senior Manager of Colliers International Thailand’s Research Department believed that investors would participate more on cross-border investment as the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) becomes a reality. He said: “By 2015, the ASEAN community will be integrated into a single market with a total population of more than 600 million people. In addition, some countries in this region have opened their doors to foreign investors, so there are many investment opportunities”.
Compared to the survey in 2011, economic uncertainty was the top concern that prevented Asian investors from expanding their portfolio. This year, two more factors have surfaced from the survey – the ability to raise new equities, followed by the supply of “for sale” property.
Simon Lo, Executive Director, Research and Advisory, Asia at Colliers International felt that investors are expecting improvements next year having gone through some tough economic challenges in 2012. These investors appear to have more concerns about whether they are able to raise capital and find quality investment opportunities amid strong competition during inflationary times.
According to the report, around 41 percent of Asian investors aim to achieve internal rate of returns (IRR) of over 20% IRR, compared to 10-15 percent expected by investors in Pacific, Middle East and North African and less than 10 percent by the investors in US, Canada and Western Europe.
68 percent of investors also expect market conditions in Asia to improve within the next five years.
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