middle-class populations .”
“ The best-performing cities are also showing rapidly changing real estate markets , with many cities seeing strong demand drive high levels of take-up , rental growth and new office construction .”
However , Kelly points out that many Asian cities have some way to go before they begin translating their rapid ascendance into economic dominance .
“ To truly become dominant economic powers , these fast-moving Asian cities need to maintain this momentum and turn it into longer-term success . To do so , they will need to improve in the areas of higher education , innovation , air quality and infrastructure .”
“ The leading Asian cities – notably Hong Kong , Singapore , Seoul , Tokyo and Taipei – do not feature in the top 30 for overall momentum . Nonetheless , they all score far better on long-term measures of momentum , relating to innovation , education and sustainability – in other words , their ‘ future proofing ’ capacity – that put these cities at a competitive advantage over the longer term horizon .”
Interestingly , the Cities Momentum Index shows political upheaval in both the United States and the UK has so far not significantly impacted locales in those countries .
“ Although the data for the Index was collected pre-election , the turmoil in the lead-up to the U . S poll appears to have had little impact on the performance of its cities ,” Kelly says . “ Market response to the election result has been largely positive , but many uncertainties remain around longer-term policy changes and the full impact on cities .”
“ In the UK , London has maintained its strong position , ranking sixth , with its long-term strengths in education , innovation and in the retail and hotel sectors holding steady . However , all UK cities have been impacted by downgraded forecasts of GDP and office rental growth , which has impacted their overall momentum .”
Chinese outbound investment jumps 50 % on 2015
Chinese investment in the overseas property markets hit new heights in 2016 . The latest cross-border investment figures from JLL revealed Chinese investors poured US $ 33 billion into commercial and residential real estate last year , an increase of nearly 53 percent year-on-year .
High profile deals , especially portfolio acquisition in the United Sales , resulted in the hotel and industrial sectors registering the largest increase in Chinese investment . Significant transactions include the purchase of Strategic Hotels and Resorts by Anbang Insurance for over US $ 6 billion ; China Life Insurance ’ s portfolio purchases of the Starwood Capital Group and an office tower in Manhattan ; the HNA Group completing its acquisition of Carlson Hotels and a 25 percent stake in Hilton Worldwide .
Land acquisitions also saw a rise of 44 percent as Chinese developers targeted Hong Kong , Australia and Malaysia in particular . Chinese property group Boyuan Holdings bought 40.5 hectares in Western Sydney for A $ 70 million while Country Garden invested while Chinese state-owned firm Minmetals bought a residential site in Yau Tong , Hong Kong , for HK $ 4 billion on August 3 .
But it is unlikely that investments this year will hit the same volumes seen in 2016 . “ We do believe that Chinese investors will continue to be major movers of capital into global real estate for many years to come ,” says David Green-Morgan , JLL ’ s Global Capital Markets Research Director . “ But a similar increase in 2017 may be challenging given the recent discussion about China monitoring its capital outflows .” theinvestor . jll 29