Interest rate expectations continue to remain low in Australia, providing strong support for the country’s commercial property market. This trend mirrors the experience across all major developed countries and is further compounded by the fact approximately one-quarter of the world’s debt is currently yielding negative interest rates.

The Editorial Advisory Board of this publication met in Hong Kong in late October to discuss the critical issues facing the institutional real estate industry. The editorial board of Institutional Real Estate Asia Pacific comprises institutional investors, consultants and investment managers.

Trade conflicts and trade-policy changes remain the most-cited threats to global economic growth, with 74 percent of executives surveyed by McKinsey & Co’s Economic Conditions Snapshot, September 2019 believing the global economy is worse now than it was six months ago — double what this sentiment was in September 2018.

Korean investors spent US$6.88 billion on European property in first half 2019, the highest figure on record, according to Savills. The activity of Korean investors is also increasing in Poland.