The development of megacities will characterize the next evolution of urbanization, global strategist and author Parag Khanna told those attending the 2016 ULI Asia Pacific Summit in Shanghai in June.
Real estate and transportation are increasingly becoming interconnected, Rob Speyer, president and chief executive of Tishman Speyer, told those attending the ULI Asia Pacific Summit in Shanghai this past June.
Eighteen months after its launch in Hong Kong, Blueprint, Swire Properties’ coworking platform, has launched dozens of technology firms and shed light on the economics of short-term memberships as a new form of leasing.
Panelists at the recent ULI Japan Conference in Tokyo said that even a mature market such as Japan offers significant opportunities, due to a program of public/private partnerships designed to ease the burden on the state, but a $1 trillion “infrastructure gap” exists worldwide.
Mitigating the population issues facing Japan, and further developing its cities to meet the demands of the future, were discussed by panelists at the recent ULI Japan Spring Conference in Tokyo. Takeshi Natsuno, professor at the Keio University school of media and governance, said Japan’s government should cease spending in areas without a certain density of population.
Japan welcomed just under 20 million visitors last year and is targeting 40 million arrivals by 2020, the year Tokyo holds the Summer Olympics. ULI members attending the event at the Tokyo Midtown conference center heard that the Japanese government is having trouble keeping up with the pace of change in the tourism industry. For example, due to licensing requirements, 99 percent of Airbnb apartment owners in Japan are breaking the law.
The keynote speaker at the ULI Japan Fall Conference, held in Tokyo in November, was Takeshi Fujimaki, a member of Japan’s upper house and a long-term critic of the “Abenomics” strategy of President Shinzo Abe, saying Japan is set for dramatic inflation and unprecedented weakness in the yen.
With 120,000 people flocking to cities every day, urban migration highlights the need for adequate shelter. The key challenge for providers of affordable housing in Asian cities is finding developable land and securing the capital to build housing on a massive scale, an international panel of housing experts said at the Habitat for Humanity Asia-Pacific Housing Forum in Hong Kong in September.
