Singapore’s outbound real estate investments in APAC dip in Q1: JLL

Cautious sentiment and pricing uncertainties dampen cross-border activity.

Singapore’s cross-border investments in Asia Pacific commercial real estate dropped to under US$400m in the first quarter, tracking a regional downtrend, according to JLL.

Its latest APAC Capital Tracker showed the city-state ranked as the third largest source of cross-border capital that flowed into APAC’s real estate market last quarter, trailing behind Hong Kong (US$1.2b) and global investors (over US$1.4b), but still outstriped the United States (over US$200b).

Last quarter’s showing represented a sharp drop from a year ago when Singapore booked more than US$1.6b in cross-border property deals in APAC in the first quarter of 2023, which made the Lion City the top source of cross-border capital at that time.

This tracked the broader downward trend in the region, with cross-border investments in APAC falling by 25% to US$3.4b in the first quarter from the same period a year ago.

“Investor caution and pricing uncertainties continued to keep cross-border activities modest,” JLL said.

Within Singapore, overall commercial real estate investments in the city-state rose 14% year-on-year to US$2.2b in the first quarter on the back of a robust demand for retail assets.

READ MORE: Singapore commercial real estate investments up 14% in Q1