New Delhi, Mar 04, 2015
Interview with Monica Zhang ,Director for Asia GRI – Global Real Estate Institute
1. What’s Asia GRI?
Asia GRI is the continent’s most senior real estate investment meeting. It’s is a day and a half of relaxed and intimate networking between real estate investors, developers, lenders from across Asia. It’s a key opportunity for Asian investors to identify global investment opportunities, and for global investors to seek out local partners. There are discussions on hotels, offices, retail, logistics, resi, debt markets, core, value-add, opportunity, distressed and many other key topics.
2. What motivated the creation of a GRI meeting in Asia?
We’ve been in Asia for nearly a decade but there are two interesting angles at play right now. Firstly, Asian capital overseas is hitting new heights and we are in a privileged position that we can introduce global product to local investors. Secondly, the squeeze on core Asian markets is driving investors towards the
emerging economies – and this trend creates the need for investors to find product and partners in very diverse and often complicated markets. The Asia GRI embraces that diversity and brings together what might otherwise be disparate investors and product providers. This creates a unique marketplace, especially for yield hunters but also for the institutional players.
3. How is Asia GRI different from other Asian real estate investment events?
Most importantly; seniority. But also the way in which our participants engage with each other. It’s fundamentally different to other conferences. In fact, GRI is not a conference at all. Our unique format does not have speakers or panels. Instead, those taking part in the event can participate in many small discussion groups, animated by a ‘Moderating Chair’ and a selection of ‘Co-chairs’. The informality and enjoyment of the debates is like an after-dinner conversation with friends in your own home. This allows you to quickly find out what other people are thinking and identify those 4-5 new potential business partners or
investment opportunities.
4. What are the highlights of this edition?
We have introduced the new opportunity for developers to pitch their projects to investors, which should be interesting. Aside from this,2015 event has been split into three distinct sections; Emerging Asian Markets, Core Asia Markets, and Global Investment Destinations.
5. What attendance do you expect for this edition?
As typical of GRI meetings across the world, there will be a ‘magic’ combination of exclusivity and seniority; a maximum of 150 people and all senior decision makers. The attendance is made of balanced mix of investors, developers and lenders, as well as some major hotel groups, retailers and corporate tenants. Of course we welcome some leading service providers as well.
6. What are the most represented countries among the participants?
We have some major Canadian, USA and Russian investors but in order of quantity of participants;
China and Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia, Vietnam,
USA, UK and then Canada. The significant Russian interest in probably the biggest surprise, but
perhaps shouldn’t be considering the increase in deal flow between China and Russia.
7. What are the major trends in the development and property investment market in Asia?
The strength of the Japanese office market is resounding and China’s industrial and logistics sectors are flourishing. Australia is also a darling of investors, despite the fairly thin supply of product. In the emerging economies, a concern to many investors is a perceived lack of reliable data, instability of local currencies, and lack of institutional-scale portfolio buying opportunities. The data issue is certainly on the mend, aided in part by relatively stable governments across the region. In terms of currency fluctuations; unfortunately that won’t go away any time soon, but what is exciting investors is the number of new, large scale projects in the pipeline; many of which will be of institutional grade.
CCI Newswire