Buyers of commercial real estate generally adapt quicker to falling prices, whereas research shows owners’ aversion to crystallising losses deters them from offloading loss-making properties. This has important consequences for market liquidity. To get back to normal levels of transaction activity, therefore, the bid-offer spread between buyers and sellers needs to narrow significantly.

How do you align the interests of a tax-exempt investor and a taxable investment manager? Bringing them together into the same room to let them network and engage in interesting conversations certainly isn’t the way. (You might be able to break down some of the normal barriers to open communication, but you have done nothing to alter the nature of the relationship dynamics that drive investment outcomes.)

Investment in the office sector globally was addressed in a recent virtual roundtable with institutional investors and investment managers. The in-depth strategy session, hosted by Institutional Real Estate, Inc, was moderated by Reno Sio, managing director, Asia Pacific, at IREI.

Sticky valuations and low transaction volumes globally are reflected in a disparity between appraisal cap rates and transaction cap rates for commercial real estate, according to the Hines 2024 Outlook: Disciplined Capital, Prospects Ahead.

Hong Kong’s High Court on 29 January issued a wind-up order for the liquidation of property developer China Evergrande Group, which has been unable to provide a specific restructuring plan with overseas creditors since defaulting on its offshore debt in 2021.

Although the low-transaction environment persists, Colliers' Asia Pacific cap rates report for the fourth quarter of 2023 shows early positive signs for the region. Five of 19 cities surveyed across Asia Pacific saw upward quarter-on-quarter movement in cap rates across all sectors.

“Despite seemingly endless geopolitical and economic uncertainty, global business leaders are coming away from Davos cautiously optimistic about 2024. While challenges and surprises remain inevitable, opportunities abound,” notes McKinsey & Co of the sentiment at the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.