Published 12 January 2023 · English

Real estate investment volumes in Asia Pacific are expected to continue to contract by 5% to 10% in 2023 after declining 25% year-on-year in 2022. Optimism driven by the idea of the Covid-19 coming to an end has slowly given way to caution amid concerns about inflation, interest rate and geopolitics.

However, Southeast Asia’s housing markets including Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are forecast to be more resilient in 2023, driven by the easing of restrictive measures coupled with strong labour markets and the steady FDI flow, which provides a buffer against market vagaries caused by the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Therein, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia are showing increasing demand, with the latter two witnessing higher listing prices.