Realty beckons investors with lure of lucre

Real estate in Asia offers great investment opportunities and has robust potential in the long term but lack of infrastructure and transparency, especially in India, pose big challenges to global investors, a study says.

"With an asset base directly exposed to the macro growth story that draws so many institutional investors to the region, Asian real estate offers a gamut of possibilities at every stage, from nascent market to mature developed economy," says a report on Asia real estate sector in the Asian Venture Capital Journal.

The report carries a global consulting group PE Asia's survey of real estate investment trends for the year ahead, focusing on how to tap the growth and avoid the pitfalls.

Meanwhile, the sector exhibits Asia's characteristic vices of volatility, immaturity and market opacity, which could deter the potential investors from entering the markets, the report cautioned.

"At the moment, we've got about $800 billion market cap of real estate stocks in this region," Peter Barge, CEO (Asia Pacific),  leading real estate services and money management firm Jones Lang LaSalle, said.

Barge said rising GDP in the region is driving trade, which in turn is a key driver for infrastructure, logistics, warehousing, R&D.

"Equivalent trends appear in office assets, and above all residential and retail, playing to the urbanisation and consumer growth stories," he said.