Real estate is a local business, right? This is true for the occupational markets: Operating in these local environments requires local expertise. But the capital markets — both equity and debt — are global in nature, and that has been very evident in the Asia Pacific markets this past quarter.

While occupational markets remained healthy during third quarter 2008, the extraordinary events in the financial markets during September and early October 2008 have had an adverse impact on the near-term outlook. Given the propensity of retail investors in Asia to invest in the stock markets, the wealth destruction in the equity markets during this relatively short period had an immediate and material negative impact on sentiment in the region.

While some survey data as recent as October 2008 continued to suggest that companies expect ongoing expansion in the region — and many had committed to expansion space during the past 12 months — corporate expansions into new pre