Buyers could have last laugh if Apac commercial real estate standoff drags on

TO SAY that commercial real estate activity in the Asia-Pacific (Apac) has been lacklustre is an understatement.

Recent headlines have centred on eye-bulging increases in transaction volume in Hong Kong and Singapore, but these are outliers. The reality is that deal counts remain in the doldrums and only these two markets globally showed higher deal volumes in the first quarter of 2023, according to MSCI’s latest Apac Capital Trends report.

In fact, if you strip out the effects on Hong Kong from the massive US$830 million distressed sale of Goldin Financial Global Centre in Kowloon, it seems even clearer that not all is rosy.