By Jeroen Vreeker, Managing Director, Global Property Research March 4, 2023 – Asia Pacific REITs lost 2.2% in February 2024 in USD terms, which brought the total return performance at -5.7% so far this calendar year. Most of the reported GPR/APREA Composite REIT Index countries – except for Malaysia (2.0%) and Australia (0.7%) – recorded losses, ranging from -2.3% for Thailand to -7.1% for Japan. The USD-denominated underperformance of Asia Pacific REITs versus regional equities widened. Regional equities returned 4.0% last month and 2.2% in the first two months in 2024. None of the sectors e ..read more

By Patrick Ma, Director of Products, Admiral Investments In February, the market continued to speculate about the potential for a lower US interest rate. The US’s CPI grew 3.1% year-on-year in January, which was above market expectations. This led the market to look towards fewer rate cuts starting in mid- or late 2024. The US Fed officials’ reiteration of caution over rate cuts also dimmed expectations of an early and aggressive rate cut cycle. Thus, the US 10-year Treasury yield breached the 4.3% level and the USD strengthened during the month. Despite higher rates and a stronger USD, the US ..read more

By Jeroen Vreeker, Managing Director, Global Property Research Feb 7, 2024 – The GPR/APREA Composite REIT Index fell 3.6% in January 2024, suffering a setback in sentiment after the gains realized in November 2023 (9.2%) and December 2023 (8.3%) respectively. The relevant countries – except for Malaysia (0.3%) – recorded losses, ranging from -1.8% for Australia to -9.5% for China and -12.9% for Hong Kong, which suffered most after as a Hong Kong court ordered the liquidation of China Evergrande Group, the world’s most indebted real estate developer at the heart of the real estate crisis in Asi ..read more

By Patrick Ma, Director of Listed Products, Admiral Investments Feb 6, 2024 – Following a rally in the fourth quarter of 2023, the capital markets had a subdued start to 2024. US economic data indicated a potential soft landing, with fourth quarter 2023 real GDP growth hitting 3.3% compared to the consensus estimate of 2%, and employment figures surpassing market expectations. Responding to this, Federal Reserve officials adopted a more hawkish stance to temper market anticipations of aggressive rate cuts. Although the Fed maintained the Fed fund rate at its current level during the January FO ..read more

By Patrick Ma, Director of Listed Products, Admiral Investments. Jan 3, 2024- Capital markets continued to ride on the prospect of lower US interest rates in December. Global equity markets rose 5.4%, while Asia Pacific equities climbed 5.0%. The US Fed maintained its policy rates at 5.2%-5.25% following its December FOMC meeting but indicated at least three policy rate cuts in 2024 at increments of 25 bps each based on its “dot-plot” projection. However, the market expected more aggressive reductions in policy rates. Tame November US inflation numbers further fuelled such sentiments. The ..read more

By Jeroen Vreeker, Managing Director at Global Property Research Jan 3, 2024 – Asia Pacific REITs finished the month on the upside. The GPR/APREA Composite REIT rose 8.3% in December and 2.5% for the 2023 calendar year, respectively. The December 2023 total return performances were representative of the positive momentum with gains ranging from 1.0% for Malaysia to 13.8% for Australia while Singapore (10.0%) also recorded a double-digit win. Please find below the December performances in USD terms of the GPR/APREA Composite REIT Index and country sub-set indices. In 2023, all relevant sectors ..read more

Dec 23, 2003 – The number of private REITs in Japan reached a record high in 2023, with growth momentum exceeding the listed REIT sector, Kiyotaka Maeda of Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Research Institute wrote in the Nikkei Real Estate market report. As of September 2023, the number has grown to 53 private REITs with assets under management of approximately 5.87 trillion yen (US$39 billion). This year, nine private REITs commenced operations. Maeda expects the number of private REITs to exceed that of J-REITs, which is currently 60, soon. He attributed the rapid growth to rising demand from domestic ..read more

By Patrick Ma, Director of Listed Products, Admiral Investments Dec 8, 2023 – Capital markets staged a strong rally in November after economic data showed that US inflation cooled. Global REITs and Asia Pacific REITs rose 10.5% and 9.3%, respectively, outperforming equities. Investors expected the US Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates as early as mid-2024. The US October CPI and core CPI rose 3.2% and 4.0% year-on-year, respectively. Both numbers were below market expectations and lower than the previous month’s data. The US Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) inflation and cor ..read more

Australia (15.7%), Thailand (10.7%) and Singapore (10.3%) did the heaviest lifting By Jerone Vreeker, Managing Director at Global Property Research Dec 7, 2023 – Optimism returned with a vengeance in November 2023, as cooling inflation readings raised expectations for future Fed rate cuts, boosting Asia-Pacific REITs. The GPR/APREA Composite REIT index climbed 9.2% in USD terms. At the national level, Australia (15.7%), Thailand (10.7%) and Singapore (10.3%) climbed the most, with all other relevant countries up for the month as well. Additionally, the underperformance for Asia-Pacific REITs v ..read more

November 2, 2023 – Rating agency S&P has downgraded GPT Group to “A-” due to debt-funded acquisitions and rising interest rates. “The credit measures of GPT Group have been below expectations for the ‘A’ rating in the past two years, primarily due to debt-funded acquisitions and rising interest rates,” S&P said in a statement. A challenging commercial real estate market will likely limit the ability of the Australia-based diversified property group to divest assets and restore key credit measures in a timely manner, it said. S&P expects the ratio of funds from operations (FFO) to d ..read more