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RICS: Commercial Property Upswing Continues in China and Hong Kong


RICS Global Commercial Property Survey Q1 2010

HONG KONG, May 4 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- The markets in both China and Hong Kong have continued to perform strongly into the New Year, according to the RICS Global Commercial Property Survey Q1 2010 published today.

(Logo: http://www.prnasia.com/sa/2009/08/17/200908171721.jpg )

Rental and capital value expectations in Hong Kong rose at a rapid pace particularly in the latter area, which hit a survey high. The mood among surveyors in China remains upbeat, although expectations towards both rents and capital values have eased back a fraction. A notable shift, however, has emerged in the investment market, where growth in transaction activity has stalled in Hong Kong following strong growth in this indicator over the last three quarters. Investment bidders per property have moderated in China having also witnessed robust growth in this indicator in the previous two quarters.

Commercial property transactions rose across the majority of the globe with Peru, Brazil and Singapore leading the way. With generally low interest rates and relatively high yields, investors have continued to find commercial property an attractive proposition. Elsewhere, transactions rebounded in the USA for the first time in three years with the net balance of surveyors reporting a rise in transactions moving from a negative 22 percent to a positive 13 percent. By way of contrast, more surveyors again reported a drop (than a rise) in activity in the UAE and Greece.

Surveyors are confident that the emerging economies, particularly in Latin America and Asia, will continue to lead the property recovery into the second quarter of 2010 with sentiment towards capital values particularly strong in Hong Kong, Peru and Brazil. There has also been a material improvement in Russia.

Other key points include:

-- Rents rose in China for the first time in 18 months

-- Investment transaction activity in China grew at half the pace

of Q4

-- The availability of real estate for occupation continued to rise

across 90 percent of the globe; Australia, Hong Kong and Poland

are notable exceptions to this trend.

-- New development starts are rising in Brazil, Peru and Chile

-- Capital values are still declining in Ireland, Spain, Turkey,

Hungary and Greece

-- Rental declines are easing in UK, France and Germany

-- Australian property market sees positive shift in investment

activity

David Faulkner, RICS Hong Kong Chairman commented:

"In Hong Kong the availability of commercial space for sale remains low, with wide differences in price expectations between buyers and sellers. Consequently, transaction volume is low, but when transactions take place we are seeing an upward trend in prices. The strata sale office market is more active than that for whole buildings, whilst sales of individual shop units have reached record high prices per square foot. However, capital values rose faster than rentals and yields continue to fall."

Henry Li, Chairman of RICS China said:

"Chinese domestic companies, in particular institutional and private local investors and insurance companies, are playing an important part in the commercial property market with China's en bloc office investment market seeing a pickup in activity over last two quarters. Given the fact that the Chinese economy continues to grow and perform stronger than the global economy, investment transactions will continue to increase from local and foreigner's investors in the second quarter.

With China's first ever World Expo opening in Shanghai on 30 April, commercial property demand is expected to continue to improve. During this period the heavy volume of both domestic and international tourists will put China under the spotlight, and thus supporting a further pick up in investment activity in commercial property market in China, especially Shanghai."

Notes to Editors:

About the Global Property Commercial Survey

RICS' Global Commercial Property Survey is a quarterly guide to the developing trends in the commercial property investment and occupier market. This edition details market conditions for the 1st quarter of 2010 based on information collected from leading international real estate organisations and local firms.

For further details, please download the full report from:

http://www.ricsasia.org/newsDetail.php?id=191

To view the event photos, please download from the link below:

http://creativegp.com/RICS/GPS_Media_Briefing_event_photos.zip

About RICS & RICS Asia

RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) is the mark of property professionalism worldwide. It covers all aspects of property, construction and associated environmental issues. RICS has 140,000 members globally and represents, regulates and promotes the work of property professionals throughout 122 countries.

The RICS Asia supports a network of over 11,000 individual professionals across the Asia Pacific region with an objective to help develop the property and construction markets in these countries, by introducing professional standards, best practice and international experience. It promotes RICS and its members as the natural advisors on all property matters. It also ensures that services and career development opportunities are provided to members.

The RICS Asia region covers national associations and local groups locating in Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, The People's Republic of China and the SAR Hong Kong. It also has members working across the region such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Kiribati, Laos PDR, Macao, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, The Maldives, The Philippines, Timor East and Vietnam. For more information, please visit: http://www.ricsasia.org .

Media enquiry, please contact:

RICS Asia Public Relations Representative

Ms Belinda Chan / Ms Ava Lau

Tel: +852-2372-0090

Fax: +852-2372-0490

Moblie: +852-9379-3045 / +852-9829-2913

Email: belinda@creativegp.com / ava@creativegp.com

Source: RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors)
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