Singapore joins ‘highly transparent’ real estate market ranking, surpasses Hong Kong

Name: How Hong Kong's housing market became among the world’s most unaffordable
Uploaded: 2024-08-28T05:34:19.000Z
Duration: 13 min
Description: How Hong Kong's housing market became among the world’s most unaffordable

Singapore becomes a ‘highly transparent’ market for the first time, while Hong Kong misses the cut-off despite a slight improvement in efforts: JLL

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

People gather next to the Merlion statue at the Marina Bay Waterfront Promenade in Singapore on August 7, 2024. Photo: AFP

Cheryl Arcibal

Published: 1:34pm, 28 Aug 2024Updated: 1:52pm, 28 Aug 2024

Singapore joined the world’s best real estate market in terms of transparency for the first time, outranking Hong Kong after stepping up its digital services and sustainability agenda, according to the latest survey by JLL and La Salle Investment Management.

The Southeast Asian nation scored 1.92 to become the fourth “highly transparent” market in Asia-Pacific, behind Australia, New Zealand and Japan in the latest biennial survey released on Tuesday. The Lion City made the elite list for the first time, and came in 13th globally, improving on its score of 1.96 in 2022.

Hong Kong came in 15th in this year’s survey with a score of 1.97, a slight improvement from 1.98 in 2022, but missing the cut-off for the top-tier markets. Tier-1 cities in mainland China were among the most-improved markets in terms of transparency, it noted.

Chicago-based JLL launched the Global Real Estate Transparency Index in 1999. It classifies a score below 1.96 as “highly transparent” and 1.97 to 2.65 as “transparent.” A lower score suggests greater clarity and transparency in the market. The cut-off in 2022 was sub-1.97.

13:00

How Hong Kong's housing market became among the world’s most unaffordable

The ranking assigns specific weights to several measures including performance, regulatory and legal policies, market fundamentals, transaction process, corporate governance and sustainability efforts.

“The focus on transparency for investors has never been greater as external challenges such as geopolitical tensions and election cycles draw increased attention,” Richard Bloxam, CEO for capital markets at JLL, said in a statement. “Additional drivers like artificial intelligence and higher standards of sustainability obligations and reporting will continue to push investors to seek greater transparency.”