2012 Global Real Estate Transparency Survey by Jones Lang LaSalle
A biennial survey covering 97 markets, the Global Real Estate Transparency Index aims to highlight important differences in transactions, ownership and operations in foreign markets. Following the post-GFC slowdown, this year’s survey shows steady improvement in transparency during the past 2 years.
The transparency score for each market is based on results for 5 categories: real estate performance measurement, availability of data on market fundamentals, governance of listed vehicles, regulatory and legal frameworks as well as transaction process.
In the Asia Pacific region, the most transparent real estate market is Australia while the biggest improver since 2010 is Indonesia. Hong Kong now sits marginally ahead of Singapore due to their superior market fundamentals data. Although China and India were ranked very closely in 2010, China has pulled away and performed better over the last 2 years. Overall, the region outperforms the global average for 4 categories but underperforms for transaction process.
With the increasing importance of environmental sustainability, Jones Lang LaSalle has launched a separate Real Estate Sustainability Transparency Index for 28 countries, with the UK, Australia and France being the top scorers.
4 main forces have been identified as the drivers of further progress in transparency:
· Hindered investments due to lack of performance indicators and accurate market information
· Motivation from ongoing credit and sovereign wealth crises
· Closer attention paid to under-the-table payments as a result of recent corruption scandals
· Sustainability as a critical decision-making input
