Asia Pacific
The Greater Sydney Commission (GSC) has prepared a 40-year vision for connecting and rebalancing growth and development in Greater Sydney, one of the fastest-growing regions in the developed world. In an event organized by ULI Australia and Urbis, GSC chief commissioner Lucy Turnbull presented the keynote, outlining how land use, transport, and infrastructure planning for the growth areas have for the first time been prepared concurrently.
Niche strategies and development are high on the agenda for investors looking to hit their return targets in South Korea. A group of private-equity real estate managers gathered at the ULI South Korea Annual Conference, held in Seoul in January to discuss capital markets in Korea and further afield.
China is a nation of more than 1 billion “digital-first” consumers, Jeffrey Towson, managing partner at Towson Group and a Peking University professor, said at a recent ULI event in Shanghai. Because these consumers are starting to act like an interconnected network—influencing each other and generating fresh ways of doing transactions—they are shaping how almost all companies do business.
Improved connectivity leads to better cities and more profitable buildings, and data can play a crucial role in analyzing that connectivity and planning to maximize it, said a keynote speaker at the ULI Asia Pacific Leadership Convivium in Singapore.
When e-commerce first became entrenched in China, it seemed to sound the death knell for traditional retail. Sporting venues and other cultural attractions are helping bring foot traffic to the experiential retail of the future, said panelists at a ULI event in Shanghai.
Members of ULI’s Asia Pacific Tech Council discuss the new council’s areas of focus, the interface between technology startups and the real estate industry, the challenges of incorporating rapidly evolving technologies, the promise of big data, and related trends.
After several years of steady growth, Asia Pacific real estate continues to produce strong returns, but caution is increasingly embedded into investor strategies, according to Emerging Trends in Real Estate ® Asia Pacific 2020, an annual real estate forecast jointly published by ULI and PwC. Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, and Melbourne are ranked as four of the top five markets for investment prospects, reflecting investor preference for regional markets that are large, liquid, and defensive.
Pragmatism and caution have defined China’s 40 years of economic reform, and this steady progress is set to continue, said Shui On Group chairman Vincent Lo speaking at the 2019 ULI Asia Pacific Summit. Lo—who has been investing in China real estate for more than 30 years—said that the nation’s approach can be summed up by the aphorism “cross the river by feeling the stones.”
The evolution of the workplace is being driven by changing demands and the power of big data, said speakers representing developers, designers, futurists, and millennials at the 2019 ULI Asia Pacific Summit in Shanghai.
ULI Philippines is creating the first ULI Library outside the United States in Bonifacio Global City (BGC), Manila. Named the BGC–ULI Public Library for Urban Sustainability (BU+PLUS), the new facility will be located on the covered roof-deck penthouse area of the De La Salle University Rufino Campus. The library is scheduled to open by the third quarter of 2019.
Singapore
Fourteen developments from across Asia have been named winners of the 2025 ULI Asia Pacific Awards for Excellence, one of the real estate industry’s most prestigious honors. Announced at the 2025 ULI Asia Pacific Summit held in May in Hong Kong, this year’s award winners include projects in Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, the Philippines, and Singapore.
One of Singapore’s most vibrant districts demonstrates how public/private partnerships and the community can shape the built environment.
Governments, businesses, and communities need to collaborate to reduce carbon emissions to ensure that decarbonisation is not just a buzzword.
Hong Kong
We are late in the current cycle, and real estate investors are focusing on the potential risks as much as, if not more than, the rewards on offer, according to investors and investment managers discussing global capital markets at the 2018 ULI Asia Pacific Summit in Hong Kong.
Growing cities such as Hong Kong are at the epicenter of what Richard Florida has dubbed “the new urban crisis,” with the city’s success sending house prices soaring out of reach of the average resident. The author and urbanist, who is director of cities at the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto, spoke at the 2018 ULI Asia Pacific Summit in Hong Kong.
While investment volumes in commercial real estate in Hong Kong were up strongly last year, flagship office buildings and prime development sites are beyond the reach of all but a handful of players. For most investors, more interesting opportunities lie in other, less-visible parts of the market. Rather than waiting for (and possibly missing) the next correction, investors who are willing to roll up their sleeves may find opportunities away from the spotlight.