Asian Commercial-Property Investing Surges
SINGAPORE -- Investment in Asian commercial real estate last year jumped 46% from a year earlier to US$67.5 billion, driven by a 56% increase in cross-border property investment by Asian and foreign buyers to almost $20 billion, according to a new report by Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.
Total global investment in office, retail, industrial and hotel properties rose about 25% to $475 billion in 2005, and North America remained the largest investment destination, the real-estate-services firm said.
But the Asian market grew much more quickly. And Jones Lang LaSalle expects investment to increase sharply again this year, driven by interest in Asia from U.S. and European developers as well as property- and pension-fund managers looking to foreign markets for growth. Jones Lang LaSalle predicted China, Japan and India will be the most popular investment targets.
"We think there'll be a sustained rise -- there's so much demand," said Guy Hollis, director of the Asian-Pacific capital group at Jones Lang LaSalle, who predicted prices will continue to climb. "Everybody wants to buy Asian real estate."
The price of prime office space rose 5% in Tokyo in 2005, 4% in Mumbai and 23% in Shanghai's Pudong-Puxi district, Jones Lang LaSalle estimates. Prime retail-property prices in these key cities rose even more quickly, increasing 29% in Mumbai and 40% in Shanghai.
American investors, largely through property funds managed by investment banks like Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., were the biggest foreign investors in Asian commercial property last year. Within Asia, Australian and Singaporean investors -- notably Macquarie Bank Ltd. and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp.'s real-estate fund -- were among the largest intraregional investors.
The Singapore government fund, GIC Real Estate Pte. Ltd., in September invested $600 million to buy an 80% stake in a Japanese property fund managed by industrial-warehouse giant ProLogis, a Denver-based real-estate investment trust. GIC Real Estate also paid 12 billion yen ($103.3 million) to Los Angeles-based Colony Capital LLC for three serviced apartments in Tokyo in March 2005. In February 2005, it bought a 57,000-square-meter shopping mall in northern Japan for an undisclosed sum.
Australians, who invested heavily in the U.S. last year, have emerged as one of the world's biggest property buyers. Australian investors accounted for 14% of the world's cross-border purchases of commercial property last year -- on a par with American investors, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. Their rapid expansion into global property markets has been driven by a growing pool of money under management, as Australians sock more savings into pensions and mutual funds.
Asia is high on Australian investors' list again this year. Macquarie has been snapping up industrial, retail and office properties in China and is planning to launch some real-estate investment trusts in Hong Kong. "When we speak to them, we hear there's going to be more, there's no question about that," said Mr. Hollis.
India will be another big draw for funds and developers, Jones Lang LaSalle predicts. During the past year, the government has relaxed regulations to allow foreign property investment -- previously confined to hotels, large industrial parks and integrated townships more than 40 hectares in size -- in projects as small as 10 hectares.
Japan's sustained economic recovery, meanwhile, has also given rise to a real-estate boom that is likely to continue. There is, however, a shortage of buying opportunities: Local real-estate investment trusts and developers aggressively bought whatever they could last year, leaving slim pickings for foreign buyers.
China offers more opportunities this year, according to Margaret Ng, director of Asia research at CB Richard Ellis. "The country is bigger, and there's just more to buy," she said. "It's also easier to get into China now because of credit control -- a lot of developers need funds to build projects, so it's easy to get a local partner."
CB Richard Ellis estimates the price of prime office space in Tokyo will rise 8% to 10% in 2006 and that prices in Shanghai will rise 6% to 8%.
亚洲商业地产市场热火朝天
仲量联行(Jones Lang Lasalle)的最新报告显示，受亚洲各地以及外商投资者跨境地产投资的推动，亚洲商业地产投资去年增长46%，达到675亿美元。跨境投资增长56%，接近200亿美元。
该地产服务公司称，全球范围内，写字楼、零售业、工业和酒店等地产投资增长约25%，至4,750亿美元，北美仍然是最大的投资目的地。
不过亚洲市场的增长更为突出。仲量联行预计，随著美国和欧洲发展商以及寻求海外发展的地产基金和退休基金经理们逐渐涌入亚洲，亚洲的地产投资今年将再度猛增，中国、日本和印度将成为最热门的投资地。
“我们认为亚洲的地产投资将持续大幅增长──因为需求如此旺盛，”仲量联行的亚太资本部经理郝思建(Guy Hollis)表示，“所有人都期待著在亚洲占有一席之地。”
据仲量联行估计，东京高档写字楼的售价2005年上涨了5%，孟买上涨4%，上海浦东新区－浦西地区上涨23%。主要城市的零售地产价格上涨更为迅猛，孟买上涨29%，上海上涨40%。
去年，美国投资者成为亚洲商业地产的最大海外投资者，主要参与者是那些由高盛(Goldman Sachs Group Inc.)、雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.)等投资银行管理的地产基金。在亚洲内部，澳大利亚和新加坡的投资者成为最大的跨地区投资者，其中最著名的当属麦格理银行(Macquarie Bank Ltd.)和新加坡政府投资公司(Government of Singapore Investment Corp.)旗下的地产基金。
这只名为GIC Real Estate Pte. Ltd.的新加坡政府基金9月份投资6亿美元收购了一家日本地产基金的80%股权，后者由总部设在丹佛的地产投资信托公司普洛斯公司(ProLogis)管理。
GIC Real Estate还于2005年3月以120亿日圆（1.033亿美元）的价格从洛杉矶的柯罗尼资本集团(Colony Capital LLC)手中收购了东京的3座服务式公寓。2005年2月，GIC购买了位于日本北部的一处面积57,000平方米的购物中心，但未披露具体收购价格。
澳大利亚投资者去年成为全球极为惹人注目的地产投资者，他们在美国倾注了大量投资。仲量联行的数据显示，澳大利亚投资者在全球商业地产跨境收购中占据了14%的份额，与美国投资者不相上下。澳大利亚人将更多的资金存入退休基金和公共基金，在一定程度上增大了管理资产的规模，从未推动了澳大利亚在全球地产市场的扩张。
亚洲市场也成为澳大利亚投资者的优选之地。麦格理银行一直在吸纳中国的工业、零售业和写字楼地产，并计划在香港推出一些房地产投资信托基金。“从他们的谈话中可能听出，他们还会有更多投资，这是毫无疑问的，”郝思建说。
仲量联行预计印度将成为基金和发展商的另一投资热点。去年，印度政府放宽了对外商投资地产业的限制──以前只允许其投资酒店、大型工业区和40公顷以上的综合城镇──目前允许其投资小到10公顷的项目。
与此同时，日本经济的持续复苏也为地产业带来了生机。不过对于外商投资者而言，购买的机会寥寥无几：去年，本地地产投资信托公司和发展商已经将有价值的地产一抢而空。
中国的机会更多一些，世邦魏理仕(CB Richard Ellis)的亚洲研究部经理Margaret Ng说。“中国幅员辽阔，有更多的投资机会，”她说。“中国政府的信贷管制也给外商投资者带来的机会──很多发展商急需资金，因此外商投资者很容易找到本地合作者。”
世邦魏理仕估计东京的高档写字楼价格2006年将上涨8%-10%，上海的价格将上涨6%-8%。
