In Brief: Asia Pacific Gateway Cities Lead Commercial Property Price Growth in 2018

Commercial property prices continued to rise across the largest gateway markets globally in 2018, according to data provided by RCA, but the pace of growth slowed from previous years. Cities in the Asia Pacific region led the pack in the latest “ RCA CPPI RCA’s Global Cities” report rankings.

Annual commercial property price growth was still positive across most of these gateway cities in 2018, even though some cities experienced temporary dips throughout the year. Five cities still posted growth greater than 10 percent and nine cities exhibited increases. Only four cities, of which three are in the Americas, posted year-over-year price declines.

The five leading cities for price growth are primarily located in the Asia Pacific region. Melbourne led the pack in 2018 with prices up 15.1 percent from a year earlier. Seoul and Singapore were also among the top five global cities for price growth in 2018. However, in each of these locales the pace of quarterly growth slowed in the fourth quarter. Markets shown below more than once represent submarkets within the larger metro.

Annual price growth in Hong Kong softened in 2018 to only a 5.2 percent, placing it eighth in growth. Over the past 10 years, however, prices in Hong Kong have increased 173 percent, outpacing every other global gateway city.

Amsterdam placed fourth, with a 10.4 percent increase. European gateways have benefited from Brexit uncertainty, which has acted as a counter to growth in London. Prices were up only 2.9 percent from a year earlier in London, though this growth still signals health given the drag of Brexit.

San Francisco was second among top cites for price growth. It is the only North American city still posting double-digit price gains, at 11.6 percent. However, this pace is slower than the city’s 15.9 percent increase in 2017.

The pace of price growth in Asia Pacific cities overall is still well above that in the Americas or Europe/Middle East/Africa, but the increases decelerated throughout 2018. Some softening in Sydney and Hong Kong growth rates weighed down the overall pace of price gains for the region.