The agency, which released the 14th edition of its Global Real Estate Transparency Index (GRETI) last week, revealed that while established markets continued to capture the majority of global capital, countries in APAC (Asia-Pacific) and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) have emerged as primary engines of global transparency gains due to rapid digitisation and proactive government reforms.

As market conditions become more segmented, commercial real estate transparency increasingly plays a crucial role in global liquidity and capital allocation.

“Transaction volumes in the ‘Highly Transparent’ group have risen by 64% over the past two years, outpacing the rest of the world by 20 percentage points. Because investors require scale, early price discovery, and reliable data to mitigate risk, these thirteen markets now represent 56% of total income-producing real estate worldwide and more than 80% of global direct investment,” JLL said.

“Transparency is no longer just a benchmark for market maturity: it’s a prerequisite for global capital deployment,” noted Richard Bloxam, CEO of Capital Markets at JLL.

“In a period of uncertainty, investors are prioritizing markets with strong digital infrastructure, robust data disclosure, and regulatory clarity. The reforms underway across a number of APAC and MENA markets will help improve operating conditions, narrow the transparency gap with established global hubs, and unlock cross-border investment,” he added further.

Five countries in Asia-Pacific generated the strongest transparency gains in this year’s survey, accounting for half of the top 10 improvers worldwide.

India led the upward trajectory through the expansion of its digital infrastructure, enhanced market data availability, and an expanding REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) market.

“Vietnam, South Korea, and Australia are already some of the world’s most transparent countries, and Thailand also made major strides by strengthening corporate governance standards, refining legal enforcement, and expanding disclosure around alternative property sectors. As a result, cross-border investment into Asia-Pacific has rebounded sharply, driving direct transaction volumes in key markets such as India and Vietnam to all-time highs,” JLL remarked.

Beyond traditional property sectors, greater transparency is expanding the investable universe into more operationally intensive and non-traditional real estate.

Alternative asset classes such as data centers and infrastructure now account for 20% of direct transaction volumes globally, and investors in these sectors are placing greater emphasis on transparency around energy grid capacity and power resilience.

“Over the last cycle transparency gains have concentrated in debt markets and niche and alternative sectors, which are all gradually approaching the data availability in the traditional sectors,” said Dominic Silman, Chief Economist for LaSalle.

“As transparency in an alternative sector improves, that’s often a leading indicator of growing institutionalization and investment,” Silman stated further.

JLL also found regulatory changes bringing an influx of private wealth and retail and pension capital into real estate, creating a greater need for standardised, higher-frequency reporting and valuation transparency.

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Titled VistaREIT of Vista Land and Lifescapes is poised to allocate some of the company’s flagship commercial properties like offices and shopping malls across the country.

According to a Forbes report, the company will sell up to 3.66 billion stock shares with a price cap of 2.50 pesos each. The company will have a provision of 333.75 million shares for overallotments.

Shares for this REIT will be sold by VistaLand and its subsidiaries including Masterpiece Asia Properties, Manuela Corp., Communities Pampanga, Crown Asia Properties and Vista Residences. The plan is to list the REIT by June on the Philippine stock market.

A Reuters report said that this will make VistaREIT the seventh REIT in the country. The report further said that the trust will have two office buildings in Manilla and 10 shopping malls in the greater capital region with an aggregate area of 256,404 sq feet. According to the company, the buildings have an occupancy rate of 90-100% over the last three years as per a report by Philstar.

The company said that through the REIT, it wants to invest on a long-term basis, in a diversified portfolio of income-generating commercial real estate assets strategically located within Vista Land integrated developments or in key urban areas. The company aims to maintain high occupancy rates and quality tenants with a particular focus on those offering essential goods and/or services.

According to industry insiders, the Philippines is likely to have a bright future for REITs with five successful IPO launches in the pandemic.

Image Credit : gohighbrow.com

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These mega projects are anticipated to involve high risks as they involve tens of billions of dollars in investments. However, they will boost GCC’s position on the real estate front by creating more environmentally sustainable communities.

The GCC real estate market is anticipated to rebound in 2020 or only in 2021. Because of that investors who previously perceived the region’s real estate market as an asset class are now cautious despite government initiatives. Upcoming events such as Expo 2020 Dubai are expected to drive real estate demand and create significant opportunities for investors. 

The real estate mega projects are being encouraged in the region to diversify the non-oil economies. But to ensure these projects are shaping up in the right direction, it is important to develop the right institutional setup, the report noted. 

The report pointed out that different institutional setups can be introduced for the mega projects depending on the ecosystem in which they operate, however, selecting the right institutional set up will depend on various factors. 

Charly Nakhoul, Principal at Strategy & Middle East said, “The projects are important for the region and were not planned around short- mid- term economic fluctuations. Some of these projects are planned to change the face of the economies aligned with the country’s visions; others are being pursued to respond to immediate needs.” 

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Core Savills CEO David Godchaux said: “Despite the popular global assumption that the majority of Dubai’s real estate stock and transaction volumes are concentrated in the prime and luxury end of the market, this sector represents just a small portion.

“In fact, only 3 percent of residential transactions in 2017 were concluded within this segment.”

By comparison, prime properties in Dubai are nearly 40% lower than in Singapore. Likewise, it is 50% less than in Moscow or Paris.

“The long-term investment potential in Dubai’s prime segment is reinforced by a nominal tax regime is reinforced by a nominal tax regime and notably low real estate investment costs,” Godchaux added. “These costs, associated with buying, holding and selling property, can detract significantly from an investment and essentially erode the attractiveness of an asset.”

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