The trade of investing in Asia Pacific’s office towers has required nerves of steel in the past several years, an endeavour that has included a bout with COVID-19 and economic upheavals, followed by work-from-home, virtual office and “shared space” movements.

And that is not all. Central banks in Asia Pacific and the rest of the world began hiking interest rates in the years following the pandemic era, after fiscal and monetary stimulus had boosted consumer inflation rates above central bank targets — a rate-raising process still under way in Japan, although other central banks are now reversing course towards monetary easing.

Of course, any year might feature economic recessions, wars, currency slumps, elections, debt defaults, natural disasters and resource shortages. In some Asia Pacific nations, ageing and shrinking populations are on the radar. In all nations, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) could render some office workers superfluous.

Glo