Market Data
International Beat
Dubai’s Big Deal
A Hong
Kong-based investor group, Chow Tai Fook Endowment Industry Investment
Development, has purchased $1.9 billion in residential and hotel assets in the
stalled Dubai Pearl project, a 20-million-sf mixed use development in Dubai.
Started in 2009, the once $4 billion project now carries a $6 billion price tag
and is about 13 percent complete, according to the project’s CEO, who hopes to
restart construction in 2Q14. The company plans to deliver the entire project
in one phase in 2017. The outlook for Dubai’s property markets is strong, with
economic growth forecast at a 4 to 5 percent clip and average residential sales
prices rising 60 percent in prime areas last year, according to reports.
“Cross-border trading is boosting volumes in select ‘secondary’ cities such as Philadelphia, Houston, and Melbourne; and investors are also seeking out markets further up the risk curve like Poland and Mexico, or those markets that until recently were considered out of bounds such as Ireland, Spain, and Italy.”
—JLL Global Market Perspective, 2Q14
Markets
to Watch
1Q14
office rents took a big jump in Mexico City, rising 7.1 percent YOY, and
Singapore, up 4.5 percent YOY, both surpassing the U.S. office rental growth of
4.2 percent, according to JLL. Rents on trophy properties in major markets are
expected to climb 4 percent by the end of 2014, with Singapore, Dubai, London,
New York and San Francisco recording the biggest change.
In a few
years, India’s shopping center inventory is expected to surpass Hong Kong and
the Philippines, the No. 2 and No. 3 largest Asian shopping center markets
after China, according to Cushman & Wakefield. India’s young growing
population is attractive to retailers and developers are on target to deliver
five projects in the next two years, adding more than 5 million sm of gross
leasing area to the country’s current 6.5 million sm.
