Property Hunter Magazine August Issue 2014 | Page 52

/// International Property News INTERNATIONAL PROPERTY NEWS Catch up on the latest property and real estate news, views and analysis from across the globe featured Asia-Pacific Property Market Become World’s Largest at USD$4.6 Trillion Hong Kong, one of the leading property investing market in the world The Asia-Pacific real estate sector, with an estimated worth of USD4.6 trillion, has overtaken the European property market for the first time ever to become the largest in the world. According to data compiled by integrated property services group DTZ, the Asia-Pacific market grew 9 percent, year-on-year, in the past year and has topped Europe, which only strengthened by 2 percent, valued at USD4.4 trillion, the Financial Times reported. Analysts attribute the rapid growth to mainly to China’s real estate industry, which recently surpassed the Japanese market with a compound annual growth of 32 percent in the last ten years. It has also become the region’s property leader, despite a recent slowdown of the Chinese market and concerns of a possible developing bubble. “But the problems in China will not be as severe 52 www.PropertyHunter.com.my as in Europe, because the leverage ratios are not the same,” DTZ global head of research Hans Vrensen told the Financial Times. Nearly half of the tallest skyscrapers in the world that were constructed in the last four years are located in China, the Middle East or Southeast Asia, based on a study by insurance company Allianz. At present, 50 percent of the world’s tallest buildings are based in Asia. “These buildings are prestige objects to show the power and wealth of these areas and regions,” according to the Allianz research. Reports of a slowing Chinese property market, which is partly due to China’s cooling economy, have caused concerns. One tycoon, Song Weiping, chairman of Hangzhou luxury developer Greentown China Holdings, reportedly resigned his post because of the slumping market, The Wall Street Journal reported last month. Yu Liang, chief executive of China’s biggest residential developer based on revenue, Shenzhen-based Vanke, whose quarterly profit declin Y