Institutional foreign capital has been investing in China real estate for more than 10 years and one of the perennial debates has been over city selection: First-tier versus second-tier, which is better?

This edition of our Asia Pacific publication is devoted to articles on China. We have prepared many interesting features in collaboration with our editorial contributors from the industry who have shared their knowledge and experience in China.

In just the past five years, the market capitalisation of Asian REITs has more than doubled to top US$148.6 billion in fourth quarter 2013, helped in large part from the now 114 total listed REITs in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan.

In a move illustrating the growing pressure on Asian pension funds to adopt alternative investment strategies in their portfolios, Japan’s US$1.3 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund, the world’s largest pension fund, has announced plans to invest up to US$2.7 billion in infrastructure during the next five years.

The Employees Provident Fund of Malaysia has doubled its equity commitment to a German logistics sector joint venture it formed in 2013 with Sydney-based Goodman Group.

After a tough start to the year in January, the Asia Pacific region experienced a relatively docile February with the region returning 0.9 percent, and marked the first month of positive returns since October 2013, according to SNL Financial.