The week in real estate: politics, politics everywhere

A rollercoaster, to put it mildly

To what extent will the US election impact Asia?

What has the Indian government done that could have untold effects on real estate?

What’s Myanmar up to with its land laws?

Find out in this week’s market round-up…

Country news

US

What a week it’s been for US politics. Much like this summer’s Brexit vote, Donald Trump’s victory came as a surprise for many.

Speculation about what a Trump win could mean for Asian markets has been rife, and was the topic of our most popular story this week.

Following the result, Andrew Gulbrandson from Jones Lang LaSalle Thailand weighed in on the topic, suggesting that while property investment in Thailand will not be affected, at least in the short term (the Thai baht, after all, is not pegged to the US dollar) other Asian markets such as Hong Kong will not be so lucky.

Given Trump’s notorious predilection for flip-flopping stances, we should leave room for contingencies. “Demand for real estate in all markets is highly dependent upon macro-economic conditions,” he said in a statement.

India

Although rather overshadowed by the US election in the global media, politics in India has made its own big announcement this week.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Tuesday that banknotes in denominations of INR1,000 (USD15) and INR500 (USD7) are to be withdrawn from circulation.

This is in an attempt to undermine ill-gotten wealth by stamping out on “black money.”
While the reasons behind the move are well intentioned, it’s predicted that Indian property prices could fall anywhere between 10 percent and 20 percent as a result of the crackdown, with an untold effect on land values.

“Since black money played a role in real estate transactions, this crackdown is very likely to hurt the real estate market, which is already reeling under high inventory in top tier-cities such as Mumbai and Delhi,” Sonal Varma, an economist at Nomura Holdings, told the Economic Times.

Read more here.

Myanmar

A law change in Myanmar hopes to make better use of idle land.

State-owned land will now be made available for leasing to the right investors for up to 70 years, according to Minister of Planning and Finance Kyaw Win.

“Skyrocketing land prices serve as a major deterrent to the influx of foreign investments,” he explained. “We have a plan to reduce land prices for foreign investors as much as we can and allow them to run their businesses without collecting any land rental fees, if possible. Our government will adopt this policy in the future. We have to make reforms with the aim of creating revenue for the country instead of keeping vacant land idle.”

New research

Knight Frank: Singapore Residential Market, Q3 2016

Singapore is experiencing heightened economic uncertainties, however there are some bright spots on the horizon.

Find the research here.

Trends

Here’s some more proof that robots are taking over the world.

A wall in Shanghai has been unveiled, but rather than being created by human bricklayers, it’s builder was a robot.

Archi-Union Architects, who are behind the wall (pictured above), say that human hands would not have been able to achieve the brickwork, whose undulating, curvy form was made possible by the precise control of a robotic mechanical arm, provided by fabrication company Fab-Union.

Read more here.

Source: Property Report