Launch and Cocktail in Philippines

The 2012 edition of the highly regarded annual Emerging Trends in Real Estate® 2012 Asia Pacific Report was presented on 19 January 2012 at the CISCO Philippines Office, Makati City. The report was presented by ULI Senior Fellow, Stephen Blank (Senior Resident Fellow, Finance at the ULI) via Telepresence at CISCO Miami. Joining him as panelists following the presentation were:

• Rick Santos, Chairman, Founder and Managing Partner, CB Richard Ellis (Moderator)
• Hans Sicat, President & CEO, Phillipine Stock Exchange
• John Fitzgerald, Executive Director, ULI Asia Pacific
• Simon Treacy, Chairman, ULI South Asia via Telepresence at CISCO Singapore
• Carlos Rufino, Philippines Representative, Executive Committee of ULI South Asia
• Malou Lim, Tax Parnter of Isla Lipana & Co., PwC member firm
• Arnel Casanova, BCDA President
• Omar Cruz, AIA Executive Vice President

A question and answer portion and discussion followed covering local political issues, REITs, green buildings, and investment updates. Guests were introduced to be ULI and ULI Philippines district Council by John Fitzgerald and Charlie Rufino and were warmly invited to join the ULI. The subsequent cocktail event was well attended by eighty notable real estate developers, brokers and government representatives, including Tony Aquino of Ayala Land, Angie Lacson of Artha Land, Andoni Aboitiz of Aboitiz Land, Jojie Yap of Filinvest, Manny Colayco of Gaisano, and Rally Martizes of Nuvo Land.

Launch and Cocktail in Singapore

The Emerging Trends in Real Estate® 2012 Asia Pacific Report was held at Asia Square Tower 1 on the 5th of December 2011. The event received an overwhelming response with more than 100 attendees. The ULI CEO, Mr Patrick Phillips opened the event and presented the results. A forum was then held to discuss the details in the report. The panel comprised of:

• David Dickinson, Managing Director and Global Head of Research & Strategic Planning, GIC Real Estate (Moderator)
• Simon Treacy, Chairman, ULI South Asia and Group CEO of MGPA
• Choo Eng Beng, Real Estate Partner, PwC Singapore
• Chris Fossick, Managing Director, Jones Lang LaSalle South East Asia & Global Vice President, RICS
• Scott Girard, Chief Executive Officer, PRUPIM Asia

The launch event concluded with a cocktail evening.

Launch and Cocktail in Australia

In early December, Patrick Phillips was in Australia to present the results of the ULI/PwC 2012 Emerging Trends in Real Estate® for the Asia Pacific Region. Simon Treacy and John Fitzgerald were also in attendance and Simon sat on the panel that discussed the report following the presentation.
This presentation formed an important part of the PwC Asia Pacific Real Estate Conference and was both well attended and extremely well received.

The key points from Patrick’s presentation can be summarised as follows:

• In the last quarter of 2011 , sentiment in Asian real estate markets declined significantly as investors came to grips with the extent of the problems in the US and the European economies.
• Transaction volumes across most of the region fell steadily during the year with prices beginning to fall in some markets. This happened despite the fact that the economies across most of the Asia Pacific region have been buoyant, if not over heated. Once again, therefore, Asia Pacific’s real estate markets are hostage to events elsewhere in the world.
• Whilst market sentiment throughout the Asia Pacific region continues to be cautious it is also recognised by some that “there is an opportunity for the first time to buy assets at below replacement cost”.
• Probably the most active regional market for real estate investment in 2012 has been Australia where commercial assets have been readily available and cap rates have remained generally higher than elsewhere in Asia. With local investment constrained by reluctant banks and higher Australian interest rates, local buyers have had problems competing with deep pocket foreign funds which continue to look at Australian assets despite the risks implicit in buying such strong local currency.
• Looking forward, the survey respondents in the Emerging Trends Asia Pacific survey have rated Singapore, Shanghai and Sydney (the three 5’s) as the most attractive investment prospect destinations. Following the three 5’s the next most popular city investment prospects were Chongqing (4), Beijing (5), Changshou (6), Melbourne (7), Taipei (8), Ho Chi Minh City (9) and Bangalore (10).
• Industrial/ distribution is the top rated sector across the Asia Pacific region, followed closely by residential. The hotel sector is least favoured and the office and retail sectors fall in the middle range.