Real estate investment destinations: MM 4th in Asia

MANILA, Philippines - Metro Manila has emerged as one of the top five real estate investment destinations in Asia-Pacific, according to a report published by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The Emerging Trends in Real Estate Asia-Pacific 2014 report showed Metro Manila went up eight places from the previous year to rank fourth in terms of investment prospects for real estate.

The report covered 23 urban areas in Asia-Pacific. It showed that Metro Manila placed eighth in terms of development prospects.

The rankings are based on the survey and personal interviews of 250 of the most influential leaders in the real estate industry.

“Manila is among the big movers in the survey given the success in the impact of the BPO (business process outsourcing) and strong GDP (gross domestic product) growth,” ULI chief executive for Asia Pacific John Fitzgerald said during the launch of the report.

The report cited the latest result that showed investors’ growing awareness that the problems long associated with lack of transparency and governance issues in the country have improved.

“The country also benefits from a young demographic, strong capital inflows from local citizens working overseas, and a workforce with a cultural affinity with the West,” the report read.

The report detailed the rankings of the city investment prospects that showed Tokyo on top, followed by Shanghai, Jakarta, and Manila in fourth spot.

Sydney followed in fifth spot with Guangzhou, Singapore, Beijing, Osaka and Shenzhen rounding out the top 10.

The same report showed Bangkok and China’s secondary cities, at 11th and 12th place respectively, as real estate investments in the region.

Melbourne, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Taipei, Auckland, Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh, Bangalore, New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai in 23rd place followed them.

In terms of development prospects, Jakarta got the top spot.

In the same event launching the report, Jones Lang LaSalle, head of International Capital Group for Asia Pacific Alistair Meadows, said the rankings showed a strong interest to invest in the Philippines from foreign investors.

“To date, there is limited foreign investment in real estate in the Philippines,” he said.