Investment volume in Singapore climbed 17% in 1Q

Check out how its Asian peers fared.

According to recently released Capital Markets MarketBeat reports by Cushman & Wakefield, investments into core countries more than doubled from the fourth quarter last year, but was about stable when compared to the same period last year at just 7% higher. 

Year-on-year, Australia and New Zealand saw investment volume climb by up 40.3% and 23.8%,respectively, Investment activity in Hong Kong and Singapore also held up on a yearly basis, up 26.3% and 17.0%, respectively, but declined in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea.

Regional investment volume of US$109.8 billion in the first quarter grew 50.2% compared to the last quarter of 2012 and 22.9% higher from the same period a year ago. Much of the quarterly increase can be attributed to the rise in investment volumes in the core markets.

Investment into office properties were largely steady on a yearly basis, especially as core locationsin the region remain vital for global enterprises to establish a presence in. These offset much of the declines in the emerging countries, which had fallen 19.0% from the first quarter last year.

Cross border investments in the region was subdued, making up about 7.6% of total investments, down from the 12.9% in the previous quarter and 10.8% in the same period last year.

About a third of cross border capital were invested into land in China’s tier 2 cities; office properties were popular in the core markets. Notably, foreign inflows into Malaysia this quarter have already surpassed the annual totals for each of the past four years;US$630.9, or 95.7% , were invested into land sites in the Iskandar region.