Property mart shines in SE Asian states

Property mart shines in SE Asian states

SINGAPORE (AFP): Growth in Asia's property market this year
will be driven mostly by Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and
Indonesia, according to international property consultants Jones
Lang Wootton (JLW) yesterday.

"The year looks promising for property investment (in these
four Southeast Asian countries)," Nigel Raymond, chairman of JLW
Asia said in a regional property market report released in
Singapore.

Raymond said that the performance of Asia's property markets
as a whole was strong in 1994, underpinned by an average annual
economic growth of 7.5 percent, greater intra-regional trade and
development of the services sector.

"The performance of the various markets at regional level has
been diversified ... nevertheless a common characteristic is
increased end-user demand in all sectors," he said.

The report said that Malaysia, which held up well in 1994 in
spite of some pressure from increasing supply in certain sectors,
would experience healthy growth this year, especially in the
residential market.

It cautioned however that the country's heavy supply of hotel,
retail and office space coming on stream in 1996 would need to be
watched.

JLW said that Thailand's economic expansion allowed increased
supply of property without adversely affecting values or rental
levels but there was a danger of oversupply in some sectors in
Bangkok.

Office vacancies have fallen marginally in central Bangkok to
around 20 percent while rentals and prices in the Thai capital
compared very favorably with other cities in Asia such as Hong
Kong and Singapore, it said.

In Singapore, where total investment sales reached US$4.48
billion at the end of 1994, JLW expects both rents and capital
values of offices to improve further.

Office space occupancy in the prime Raffles Place business
district ballooned to almost 100 percent with island-wide
occupancy averaging 97 percent, according to the report.

Jakarta

JLW said that Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, still had a full
supply of office space with heavy supply forecast for 1996 but
attractive rental levels for prime space attracted many tenants.

"This has led to an improvement in the average occupancy
levels with vacancies decreasing to 7.8 percent as at December
1994," it said.

With continued interest from international companies, JLW said
prospects for office and luxury residential in Indonesia appeared
optimistic for 1995.

Raymond said however that Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Japan
will face more property market uncertainties this year.

Japan, whose office market has suffered from a shortage of
tenants and declining rents since early 1993, would continue to
grapple with its domestic economic problems, he said.

In Taiwan, JLW said hopes of a surge in property demand,
driven by the relaxation of rules pertaining to foreign financial
and securities firms, were hindered by zoning regulations
limiting where these companies can establish offices and obtain
formal business licenses.