An eerie whistling sound pervaded the boardrooms of Western property funds and institutional investors following the global financial crisis. Teams that normally would be strategising and honing their plays sat idle, their houses emptied of the leverage and capital they once used as their competitive advantage.

So the explosive arrival of Asian institutional investors was nothing short of a revolution. Thanks to regulatory changes that allowed them to venture onto foreign shores for the first time, they sallied forth en masse, acquisitive competitors that had never been seen before.

That early and rapid advance has stalled. Asian institutions are facing far greater competition now that domestic players have restocked their arsenals. So the Eastern teams have to develop new plans of attack, taking on different types of targets — or moving from bastions of high finance such as New York City and London on to smaller, less-glamorous cities.

These are