Asia Pacific shows improvement in real estate transparency

Andrew Batt

Transparency within the real estate industry is one important factor for anyone considering investing within a particular country. The good news for investors in Asia Pacific is that the region has shown a broadly based improvement during the past two years, and in Australia now boasts the most transparent country in the world.

The 2010 Global Real Estate Transparency Index, released this week by Jones Lang LaSalle and LaSalle Investment Management, revealed a worldwide slowdown in the progress of real estate transparency over the past two years. The survey suggested that the recent turmoil in global financial, economic and real estate markets has impacted on market behaviour, with real estate players focusing on survival rather than market advancement.

The average improvement in real estate transparency across the 81 markets covered by the survey has halved in 2008-2010, when compared to the 2006-2008 and 2004-2006 period, with Australia leading the global stage and Asia Pacific showing the best improvement in regional transparency.

According to the transparency index, Australia now ranks as the world’s most transparency market, pushing Canada into second place and the U.K. into third. The traditional leading pack – Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., the United States and Canada, have now been caught up by a number of European markets, namely Sweden, Ireland and France who now sit amongst the world’s most transparent markets. Turkey registered the world’s strongest improvement due to the alignment of its legal and regulatory systems with the European Union.

Of the key components of real estate transparency, the transparency of the transaction process appears to have been compromised most by the more challenging real estate market conditions of the past two years. More surprising is the evidence of a slowdown of progress in the transparency of real estate regulatory and legal environments. The quality and depth of information on market fundamentals continues to improve nonetheless, helping to boost this dimension of transparency in most markets across the globe.

Nonetheless, there are a number of bright spots, and transparency continues to improve, albeit modestly, in the majority of markets. Of the top 15 improvers, nine are in Europe and six are in Asia Pacific. Turkey tops the league table of transparency improvers, and progress has been made in China, India, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Greece and Hungary. A number of more advanced markets, such as Germany, Ireland and Denmark, have also moved up the transparency league.