Transparency in Thailand’s real estate and property markets has improved in the last two years, according to the eighth edition of JLL and LaSalle Investment Management’s biennial Global Real Estate Transparency report, published today.
Covering 102 countries, the report noted that Southeast Asia has continued to display the widest diversity in the Asia-Pacific region.
More than 80 per cent of markets have registered improvement since 2012, and the Asia-Pacific region has seen a moderate pace of progress.
Singapore remained the most transparent market in Southeast Asia, followed by Hong Kong and Malaysia. All three were earmarked as being ‘transparent’.
Thailand is ranked in 36th place in the ‘semi-transparent’ sector, one place behind China and ahead of the Philippines and Indonesia.
Southeast Asia continued to display the widest diversity in real estate transparency in the Asia-Pacific region. Singapore (up one rank to 13th globally) topped the rank in region, while Myanmar (100th) is one of the least transparent countries globally.
In the latest survey, Singapore has inched ahead of Hong Kong once again (also in 2010) in a close race for the top transparency position in Asia, with the latter seeing its scores fall since 2012 in the areas of property taxation relating to cooling measures, and also in accounting standards and corporate governance.
Most of Southeast Asia has not seen much change in terms of global rankings. Thailand has pushed forward in its ranking (from 40th to 36th place) on moderate score improvements, although Vietnam has fallen (from 62th to 68th) due to faster progress seen elsewhere in the world.
All countries in emerging Southeast Asia have seen some advances (but less significant than 2012 when the sub-region accounted for three of the top 10 global improvers). Greater availability of market data contributed to 2012’s improvement, while incremental changes in the regulatory/legal and transaction processes contributed to both the 2012 and 2014 results.
In its summary, the report noted: “Going forward, the region should see further progress in transparency improvements. Demand from both international investors and corporate occupiers as well as more discerning domestic players should continue to lead to better information on market fundamentals.”
Dr. Chua Yang Liang, Head of Research South East Asia at JLL, said that continuing institutional interest in South East Asia would help to drive rising transparency in the regulatory/legal environment as well as the real estate transaction processes.
He cited recent interest by institutional players such as the GIC RE, Goldman Sachs and Ascendas in the Philippines, and on-going institutionalisation of the property market in Thailand as examples.
In addition, Dr Chua also expects a young population in South East Asia, with higher education and increasing usage of social media, to push for greater real estate transparency going forward.
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Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru Group, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email andrew@propertyguru.com.sg
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