Asia Pacific Investment Insights H1 2025 (Colliers)
Real estate investments during H1 2025 were largely driven by domestic investors in most Asia Pacific markets, while offshore interest persisted in key hubs such as Australia, India, Singapore and Hong Kong.
The region’s investment outlook is expected to remain steady and resilient through 2025 and into 2026, supported by a lower interest rate environment, moderating inflation and sustained economic growth across key markets.
Key insights:
Office remains the asset class of choice, with retail gaining pace.
South Korea, Japan and Australia drove nearly two-thirds of investment volumes.
Growing appetite for alternative asset classes such as data centres, life sciences and student housing.
Growing confidence of local investors, underscoring resilience across the region.
As workplace patterns continue to change, occupiers in Asia Pacific are accelerating the return to office and elevating the workplace experience.
CBRE’s 2025 Asia Pacific Office Occupier Survey, with insights from nearly 300 corporate real estate executives, highlights:
Workplace effectiveness: Insufficient small rooms (48%) and lack of vibrancy (35%) remain top challenges. Adjusting workstation sizes and desk-sharing ratios can help improve efficiency.
Tighter attendance protocols: 82% of occupiers now impose consequences for non-compliance (+16 percentage points y-o-y), with office utilisation improving in 2025.
Core and quality preference: Smaller companies display the strongest appetite for growth. 65% of occupiers planning to move prefer CBD cores, but most availability is in non-core areas.
Asia’s Trillion-Dollar Infrastructure Gap Opens Door for Global Investors
Asia faces a USD 1.7 trillion annual infrastructure funding gap through 2030, creating a massive opportunity for global investors. Demand is being driven by rapid urbanisation, digitalisation, and aggressive decarbonisation goals, with investor interest converging around data centres, renewable energy, storage, and logistics hubs.
In our latest issue of APREA TrendWatch, we explore opportunities in Asia’s infrastructure landscape as the region builds the backbone of its future growth.
Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) in India Mapping Future Potential (Knight Frank)
Infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) have emerged as a transformative instrument in India’s infrastructure financing landscape, bridging the gap between large-scale project funding requirements and investor appetite for stable, long-term returns.
This research report delves deep into the Indian InvIT ecosystem, providing a detailed examination of existing structures, operational frameworks, governance models, and revenue streams. It analyses the diversity of operational and maintenance models adopted across leading InvITs and evaluates their implications for scalability, investor confidence, and creditworthiness.
In addition, the report identifies the challenges that the sector faces, including regulatory bottlenecks, limited awareness among retail investors, and the need for standardized frameworks to enhance transparency and comparability. By highlighting successful case studies and emerging trends, it aims to provide actionable insights for policymakers, developers, financiers, and investors to strengthen and expand the InvIT ecosystem in India.
Asia Pacific Data Centre H1 2025 Update (Cushman & Wakefield)
Asia Pacific maintained strong momentum in data centre expansion throughout the first half of 2025, adding nearly 2,300MW to its development pipeline. The region’s operational capacity now stands at around 12.7GW, with 3.2GW under construction and a further 13.3GW in planning stages.
Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud services, and capital investment stood out as dominant themes across Asia Pacific. Governments and leading technology firms accelerated AI infrastructure, aligning policy and innovation to meet rising demand for cloud computing and large language models (LLMs). Data centre operators are increasingly building facilities designed for AI workloads, reinforcing the region’s ambitions to lead in global AI infrastructure despite regulatory and geopolitical headwinds.
Capital markets remained robust, signalling continued investor confidence in Asia Pacific’s digital infrastructure. A surge in private equity acquisitions highlighted the sector’s appeal as a long-term investment and growing demand for AI-ready and hyperscale platforms.
Despite some hyperscalers slowdowns, cloud service providers continued expanding, launching new regions and AI-focused developments, and the region continues to attract significant investment and innovation in digital infrastructure.
Asia Pacific Office Market Insights H1 2025 (Colliers)
Office demand across key markets in Asia Pacific rose by 9.6% year-on-year in H1 2025, reflecting a broader recalibration of workplace strategies and renewed activity.
With moderating inflation and stability in monetary policy, the region presents a promising outlook for occupiers seeking growth.
Evolving priorities are driving demand for flexible, sustainable office spaces.
India, Mainland China and Japan accounted for more than 90 percent of leasing demand.
Singapore, the Philippines and Japan led regional leasing activity.
Strong supply pipeline in 8 of 11 key markets, led by Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
C-REITs returns fell marginally by 0.3% M-o-M in July to underperform the region’s REITs, as well as the SSE Composite, which rose 3.7% in the same period. Offshore listed Chinese REITs also rose by over 6% for a second consecutive month.
Chinese stocks have bounced off their April lows, with ample domestic liquidity sustaining the rally. Markets are reacting positively to recent government moves to curb excessive price wars and overcapacity in some sectors, which could ease deflation and boost corporate earnings. The increase in risk appetite have likely prompted a rotation out of more defensive stocks, like REITs.
The major REIT sectors corrected, with rental housing suffering the largest drop of over 3%. Industrial parks and logistics sectors remained relatively resilient.
From tools to traction: Where real estate tech is heading in 2026
By Bernie Devine, Senior Regional Director, Asia Pacific, Yardi
Last year, artificial intelligence shifted from headline hype to hands-on experimentation – and with it, real estate’s attitude to technology began to change. But will momentum become maturity? Yardi’s annual Proptech Survey tracks how far – and how fast – the sector is really moving.
For more than six years, Yardi has surveyed Asia Pacific real estate leaders on technology adoption – and we’ve confirmed what everyone knows. Real estate lags, rather than leads, on tech adoption.
Surprise twist? Last year real estate made a move.
In 2024, 26% of Asian firms, 27% of Australian firms and 35% in New Zealand had started implementing AI systems. It’s true that only 12–16% had reached the point of an established, growing solution. And implementation isn’t integration. But it’s a start.
So, the gap between testing and traction is what we’re watching this year. Not just who’s using AI, but who’s getting value and how.
Source: Yardi, 2024.
AI climbs the org chart
In 2024, we asked AI to write our emails. In 2025, we’re asking agentic AI to manage our calendars, delegate our tasks and chase us for deadlines.
Picture a digital organisational chart, where agents are assigned tasks, report to other agents, and interact with human counterparts. These agents don’t just assist. They execute, escalate and learn.
We’re already starting to see early examples embedded into real estate. Think agents that triage maintenance requests, manage lease workflows or update records in real time.
This kind of orchestration demands software built to speak fluent AI, so our survey asks: Who’s getting ready to put the agents to work?
The bots are coming (for both sides)
If AI is the frontline change agent, cyber is the fight in the background. Despite this, our 2024 survey found the industry underprepared: 33% of firms in Asia, 37% in Australia and 53% in New Zealand had already faced a cybersecurity incident or data breach.
AI is now in the hands of attackers. Deepfakes are getting harder to spot. Phishing is more sophisticated. And traditional firewalls aren’t built for AI-generated code.
The real estate industry is catching up. Slowly. We’ve tracked a growing investment in auditing and training. But this can’t be a one-and-done exercise, and it can’t be the sole responsibility of the tech team.
This year we want to know: Has your cyber strategy evolved as fast as the threat landscape?
Source: Yardi, 2024.
Real estate hits refresh
In the tech adoption race, real estate has always been the industry tying its shoelaces at the starting line. But not anymore. Maybe. Our 2024 data revealed less resistance to change and more willingness to experiment.
But CIOs are now fielding a new set of questions from their colleagues and the C-suite: “Can we get an AI for that?” It’s a fair question, but often the wrong one. It reveals a lingering mindset: that technology is something to add after the fact, rather than something to build the business on.
We’re looking beyond adoption. We want to know: What is driving real impact?
Over to you
The 2025 Yardi Proptech Survey is now open across Asia, with Australia and New Zealand launching soon. We want to hear what’s changed in the past year and what you’re planning next.
Your insights help your industry to benchmark progress, challenge assumptions and sharpen its collective focus. Tools themselves don’t create traction – smart systems, smart strategies and shared learning do.
Curating Workplace Experience that Matters (Cushman & Wakefield)
In today’s hybrid work era, the office is not just a place to work — it must inspire. Drawing on insights from our Experience Per Square Foot™ (XSF) research and project experience, we explore how a strategic approach to workplace experience, employee wellbeing, and office design can drive engagement and productivity.
Key Insights:
Design inclusive, neurodiverse environments that reflect your culture
Reimagine your office as a flexible, multi-functional space with technology enabled
Create inclusive culture and sustain new ways of working through behavior and change management
Kemmu Kawai joined Longevity Partners Japan in September 2022 as the Country Director. Based in Tokyo, he oversees all operations and activities in Japan, the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. He brings him more than 16 years of experience in finance where he specialised in real estate and credit investments. Before joining Longevity Partners, he served as a Portfolio Manager at Norinchukin Bank and as Investment Manager at Center Point Development.
