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Despite a challenging economic environment, data centres remain in focus for the commercial real estate industry in Asia Pacific, with notable market developments across the region.

CBRE's latest Asia Pacific report explores key data centre investment trends and outlook for the sector in the region, and offers insights into the data centre occupier and investment market in Australia, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Singapore, India and Korea.

Key regional trends include:

• Investor demand for data centres is strong, with a wide range of buyers seeking stabilised assets. However, there remains a lack of stock for sale.
• Prevailing high interest rates continue to weigh on data centre investment. However, investment volume in 2024 is expected to recover from last year’s low base, driven by activity in Japan.
• In addition to increased activity by hyperscalers and more corporates moving towards a co-location approach, there has been a surge in AI-related demand since late 2023.
• Power supply, especially a lack of renewable energy, is becoming a major challenge for future data centre development. 

This report was originally published in https://www.cbre.com/insights/reports/asia-pacific-data-centre-trends-q1-2024

CBRE’s 2024 Global Investor Intentions Survey reveals buyers’ and sellers’ preferred strategies, markets and property types. Highlights of the report include:

• Global investors expect to engage in more buying and selling activity compared with 2023 amid growing optimism that the real estate investment market conditions will improve.

• Although some further cap rate expansion is expected, this trend should start to reverse by midyear.

• While investors in most markets remain cautious in H1 2024, expected interest rate cuts by midyear should lead to improved commercial real estate investment activity in the second half of the year.

This report was originally published in https://www.cbre.com/insights/reports/2024-global-investor-intentions-survey

CDL’s Integrated Sustainability Report 2024 is their 17th sustainability report since 2008. Themed “Zero in on Nature”, the digital report communicates CDL’s progress towards their material ESG goals and targets, established under the CDL Future Value 2030 sustainability blueprint. External assurance is key to enhance data credibility and instill confidence in readers. CDL’s external assurance of their sustainability report started in 2009 and has continued to expand. ISR 2023 and ISR 2024’s external assurance has been further elevated in its scope against the GRI Standards, SASB Standards, as well as the TCFD and CDSB frameworks.

This year CDL became the first Singapore company to commit to nature-related disclosures based on the TNFD Recommendations in this report.

Sustainability is quickly becoming a priority for governments and businesses across the world. Amidst the adoption of reduced emission targets, a key area of focus is investment in and deployment of renewable energy (RE), which is a key solution to decarbonisation and achieving net zero emission goals.

Businesses throughout all industries are increasingly looking towards RE, whether to meet the applicable regulations in their jurisdictions, or to utilise the available green incentives. However, to effectively assess the implementation of RE solutions, businesses must first traverse the RE-related policies, restrictions and green financing in their respective jurisdiction. An added dimension of complication is added if the business operates across country lines, as the policies and focus of each country may differ.

To help businesses navigate the policies and laws affecting the RE sector, Rajah & Tann Asia published the Guide to Renewable Energy in Southeast Asia which provides an overview of the RE landscape in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, where Rajah & Tann Asia has its geographical footprint.

This Guide summarises the salient legal and regulatory issues in each jurisdiction that businesses should be aware of in their implementation of RE, including the regulatory framework and sectoral policies, RE programmes, government incentives, and key issues in the RE sector.