In pursuit of hyper-transparency
Global Real Estate Transparency Index, 2018
The 11 'Highly Transparent' markets represent the majority of the world's leading real estate investment destinations, accounting for almost 75% of direct real estate investment into the 100 markets covered by the index.
These leading markets continue to push the boundaries of transparency and are at the vanguard of changes in the industry, both in terms of potential advances and possible disruption.
The world's most transparent markets
Two 'Highly Transparent' markets stand out. The Netherlands is one of the top improvers over the past two years, despite its already-high levels of transparency. The country has been at the forefront of proptech adoption and the growth of the 'alternatives' sector in Europe, leading the real estate industry into a new era. Sweden, too, nudges into the 'Highly Transparent' tier for the first time. However, 'Highly Transparent' status continues to elude the Asian gateways of Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.
Top markets continue to push on – but face challenges going forward
These markets are constantly striving for higher levels of transparency as the leading investment destinations. Over the past two years, they have been second only to the lowest ranked 'Opaque' group of markets in terms of improvement. They have been boosted by a combination of transformative proptech tools, pushes towards open data and the maturing of the 'alternatives' sector. However, these transformational tools may present challenges as well as opportunities with question marks around data quality and availability in the emerging proptech and flexible office sectors.
Where next?
These changes hint at where 'Highly Transparent' countries will head next in pursuit of even higher standards. We have shortlisted four key trends to watch in the next two years:
- Workplace safety and wellness, as investors and occupiers place more importance on employee and community wellbeing;
- Cyber-security and data protection, as real estate providers collect increasing volumes of data, which they need to treat with great care;
- Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), as the 'responsible investor' movement grows and new metrics are defined around social and governance-related goals;
- Legal and financial disclosure, as new regulations continue to place complex new demands on real estate fund managers.