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
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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