Overseas Property Exhibitions Update | Week Ending 12th March 2023

Exhibitions Update

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Another weekend of sub 20 exhibitions in Hong Kong. This was expected, however, with the property & immigration exhibition happening over the weekend.?

Exhibition numbers are climbing again - it was the fourth busiest weekend of the year and brings the year to date number of exhibitions to just under 150 from almost 50 different agents. Projects from 11 countries and 33 cities have been featured and there has been over 100 so far this year - highlighting the choice available to consumers.

The UK took a slightly less than 50% share of the exhibitions, London took a good share of those with projects highlighted from zones 2 - 5. Almost 75% of London's projects have been in Zones 1-3 this year and London continues to push towards 50% of UK exhibitions (recovering from as low as 20% during Covid). Thailand and Asia continue to take back market share, Bangkok remains the second most featured city in March. Canada and Australia also had a handful of exhibitions.

I highlighted in my?Friday Linkedin update?the Berkeley event that had been going on for two weeks. Instead of two days (at a hotel style exhibition), the event went for two weeks and involved 10s of agents and partners. It also:

• Allowed consumers to visit multiple times (something they're doing more of these days)
• Explore different projects (two dozen plus were in the same venue)
• Build Berkeley's brand further

When marketing / selling a project in your home market, there's a display suite available for consumers for months, even years... international buyers also want an extended period where they can view options (and they already are, to an extent, through multiple events over an extended period of time with various agencies).

In time, too, this report will transition from looking at exhibition numbers to focus more on buyer behaviour and what locations / projects buyers are searching / enquiring / buying from across Asia.

In the News?

[UK] Blackstone sells London?waterfront complex to Singaporean group?for ￡395mn

• St Katharine Docks attracts nearly 6mn visitors each year
• Blackstone is one of the world’s largest real estate investors with a global portfolio worth $577bn and roughly €120bn in Europe, of which 13 per cent is made up of offices.

[MEA] A 50% rent increase??Record property demand in Dubai is creating a nightmare?for some residents

• Demand for property in the UAE’s glitzy commercial capital of Dubai hit a record high for the first two months of 2023, real estate services firm CBRE reported.
• Some Dubai residents have seen their rents increase by more than 50%.

[TH]?Chinese buyers ready to scoop up ‘better value’ Thailand property?for investment, retirement as travel resumes between the 2 countries

• Bookings for flights to Thailand from China went up by 67 per cent in February compared with a month earlier, Trip.com data shows
• Thailand’s tourism authority says it welcomed 161,540 Chinese tourists between January 1 and February 15, and expects the number to reach 5 million for the whole year

[AU]?China capital flowing back into property market

• Renewed interest from international investors has seen Chinese capital flow back into in the Melbourne commercial property market at a rate not seen in five years.
• We have not seen this much new Chinese capital coming into the country since 2017