Shanghai and Singapore property seen as top buys in Asia-Pacific

Posted Sep 28, 2007 by dpa news

Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo are regarded as the top three most promising Asia-Pacific cities for real estate investment, a report said on Friday.

"Sentiment was strong among survey participants to either buy or hold all types of properties" in the three cities, rather than sell, said the accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the US-based Urban Land Institute (ULI).

Shanghai was first in the 2008 investment prospect ranking, up from second spot in the rankings for 2007. Singapore jumped from fourth to second and Tokyo maintained its third-place position.

The investor survey is the second from PwC and ULI. It covered 20 cities.

Osaka came fourth, followed by Hong Kong, Beijing, Seoul, Ho Chi Minh City, Guangzhou and Mumbai (Bombay).

Kuala Lumpur emerged 11th for real estate investment prospects, trailed by Bangalore, New Delhi, Auckland and Sydney.

The final five were Taipei, ranking 16th, Melbourne, Bangkok, Manila and Jakarta.

"It's expected that even greater amounts of capital will be flooding Asia-Pacific real estate markets in 2008," the Business Times quoted PwC's tax partner David Sandison as saying.

The real challenge for investors lies in "finding the right assets against the backdrop of yield compression and scrutiny by regional government and tax authorities," he said.