Investors are opening fresh real estate operations across Asia Pacific in a bid for resilience.

Canadian, European and U.S. investors are opening and expanding offices in Asia Pacific in search of diversification, yield and growth in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among those establishing new outposts is Cadillac Fairview, wholly owned by Canada’s Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which is opening an office in Singapore at the end of 2021. U.S. investor Hines has also been expanding into the city state.

Canadian firm Ivanhoe Cambridge is setting up in Australia next year, while Germany’s Patrizia has recently announced plans to expand into Japan.

Transaction volumes have been increasing in APAC for years. But the new office openings come amid rising prices and declining yields for high-quality real estate around the world since the pandemic, prompting a gear-change for investors.

“Investors are gearing their portfolios more towards resilience, which is driving them to diversify geographically and across property type,” says Singapore-based Kate Low, senior director in international capital – Australia, JLL. “With increasing pent-up capital, investors recognise the opportunity for compelling returns and acknowledge the demographic drivers of APAC.”

Although Asia Pacific cross-border activity is yet to reach pre-COVID-19 levels due to travel restrictions, there are signs of recovery. In the third quarter of this year, investments in APAC reached US$125 billion, just 6 percent below 2019 levels and 30% up year on year, according to JLL. The firm forecasts deal volumes to rise up to 15 - 20 percent by the end of the year.

At the same time, 87 percent of institutional investors from Europe and 65 percent from North America expect to increase their allocation to APAC over the next two years, according to JLL.

Among those is Allianz, one of many overseas groups which have been established in Singapore for several years with the aim of being closer to deals. The group plans to increase its assets under management in APAC to 15 percent over the coming years from 9.6 percent.

Singapore’s business and expat-friendly regulatory framework, along with its political stability, make it a preferred base for global investors and ideal gateway to APAC markets. The city-state was also ranked the safest place in Asia in Bloomberg’s COVID-19 resilience ranking in August 2021.

Singapore, Japan and Australia have consistently ranked as the most popular investment destinations within APAC, according to JLL data. But there is also significant demand for South Korea and China as investors seek out liquid markets with deep domestic demand, limited geopolitical risk and favourable cash-on-cash returns.

“Asia Pacific has a strong underlying economic growth of over 5 percent, which is higher than Europe and the Americas,” says Regina Lim, JLL’s head of capital markets research in the region. “It has a young, tech-savvy population, providing lots of opportunities to build more modern logistics stock, more data centres and more innovative retail.”

The hunt for resilient, income-producing assets means offices accounted for the majority of deals across the region in the third quarter of this year at 55 percent, according to JLL’s latest APAC capital tracker. The next highest was logistics and industrial real estate at 24 percent.

Meanwhile, Japan continues to be the target market for multi-family deals, with M&G, LaSalle, PGIM, Allianz, Nuveen and AEW all adding this to their portfolios this year.

Australia is also firmly in the frame. U.S. investor Greystar’s new Australian build-to-rent fund accumulated A$370 million (US$265.5 million) in its first round of capital raising earlier this year.

Australia is the only country within APAC where investment volumes have exceeded pre-COVID-19 levels. At US$20 billion, deal flows in the first nine months of this year already match the 2019 total. Experts owe this to Australia’s transparent market and strong pool of domestic investors, including well-capitalised superannuation funds.

A recently-announced travel bubble with Singapore for business purposes, along with a broader easing of international travel restrictions towards the end of 2021, is expected to increase deal flow even further.

JLL is a leading professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management. JLL shapes the future of real estate for a better world by using the most advanced technology to create rewarding opportunities, amazing spaces and sustainable real estate solutions for our clients, our people and our communities. JLL is a Fortune 500 company with annual revenue of $18.0 billion, operations in over 80 countries and a global workforce of more than 94,000 as of March 31, 2020. JLL is the brand name, and a registered trademark, of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. For further information, visit jll.com.