For the past few decades, Japanese investors have been relatively conservative about investing in overseas real estate markets and, given these investors are struggling with Japan’s deteriorating economy and very low profits from its financial markets, outbound investment is an unavoidable step for them.

The diverse Asia Pacific region enters 2017 with positive momentum. In contrast to the winds of political change in the West, major countries in Asia Pacific are much less likely to be buffeted by drastic shifts in political leadership. Although structural reform needs to occur at a faster pace in a number of countries, a major roadblock in 2017 is unlikely.

Even as they watch Trump, global property investors are keeping a close eye on the world’s major central banks and interest rates, and especially the US Federal Reserve, which in December 2016 raised the target range for the federal funds rate by 0.25 percent and publicly posited three interest-rate hikes through 2017.

Four years ago, the board of Institutional Real Estate, Inc made a strategic decision to branch out to serve a broader market — the professionals advising the individual investor marketplace. The board’s solution was to launch a new publication titled Real Assets Adviser — a publication edited exclusively to meet the educational and information needs of today’s professional financial adviser.