The ongoing tax and regulatory developments put increasing pressure the requirements fund structures have to meet in order to be efficient, compliant, sustainable and attractive to investors. Particularly on the tax side there is a paradigm shift with the focus now changing from “substance” to the “business rationale” of a structure.

From a professional standards perspective we consider this a very relevant topic as good fund governance entails designing a fund structure that is not only compliant with the tax, legal and regulatory requirements as they apply at the inception of the fund but also as they are expected to apply during the fund’s term. The round table allowed the participants to share their perspectives and experiences on the developments in the fund-structuring and fund-raising process thereby engaging in peer-to-peer learning.

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ANREV Professional Standards Committee would like to thank the participants who have engaged in the discussion as well as Joep Ottervanger from Loyens & Loeff and Eric Roose from Withers KhattarWong, who kindly helped to facilitate the discussion and wrote this paper.

To learn more about this Committee, please click here.

Welcome to the April 2018 update of the Global Real Estate Fund Index (GREFI). It is an index showing the performance of non-listed real estate funds on a global basis and is created by ANREV, INREV and NCREIF. This publication includes performance figures up to end of Q4 2017.

Due to additional time being needed to submit data from closed end funds in the US, the Q4 2017 GREFI has been released in two parts: preliminary release on March 28th and final release on April 18th.

The GREFI was updated for the first time on a quarterly basis following the second quarterly release of the ANREV Index for Q1 2014. From Q1 2014 onwards, GREFI has been updated 12 weeks after the quarter end. This index release follows the same structure of previous releases. All numbers are also available in an Excel file.

The Q4 2017 GREFI release includes the performance of 520 funds compared to 521 funds as of Q3 2017. The GREFI includes funds in Asia Pacific (90), Europe (325), US (93) as well as funds with global strategies (12). GREFI funds represent US$718.7 billion of total gross asset value with 44% in US funds, 35% in Europe, 18% in Asia Pacific and the remaining 3% in global strategy funds.

Please send any queries to [email protected] or [email protected]

The document is a distillation of information provided to ANREV by non-listed property vehicles, as well as publicly available information of other non-listed property vehicles, in order to give a view on the size and composition of the Asia Pacific non-listed property funds market over a particular period of time.

If you have any questions, please contact Daisy Huang at [email protected].

In April's issue, we have included:

Australia

• Stapled structures under pressure
• Foreign investment regulation in Australia
• Security of Critical Infrastructure Bill

China

• China clarifies beneficial ownership requirements
• State Council announces reduction to VAT rates and other significant VAT changes
• China regulators jointly release new rules to narrow the use of regulatory arbitrage in the asset management industry

Hong Kong

• Bill to amend provisions of Companies Ordinance to improve its clarity and operation gazetted
• Hong Kong Significant Controllers Register
• Revised anti-money laundering guidelines gazetted
• Hong Kong introduces BEPS bill marking a significant step up in its transfer pricing enforcement regime

Japan

• New fund structure available for real estate investment in Japan

Singapore

• Singapore Budget: New stamp duty rates on real estate
• Singapore Budget: Announcement on S-VACCs

South Korea

• The Korean National Assembly in December 2017 passed a tax bill.

UK

• UK to tax gains made by non-residents on the disposal of UK immovable property from April 2019

U.S.

• Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

Asia Pacific

• Key tax issues at year end for real estate investors 2017/2018

ASEAN

• Revised ASEAN Collective Investment Schemes (CIS) Framework

Lastly, we would like to thank our committee who helped putting together the Newsletter. Details about this committee can be found here.

With the popularity of the Asia Pacific non-listed real estate market continuing to increase, it is timely to assess how much capital is entering the market and what this figure represents on a global basis.

The Capital Raising Survey was first launched in 2014. This survey gives an insight into capital raising activities within the non-listed real estate industry by region, product type and investment strategy. The non-listed real estate products include separate accounts, joint ventures, club deals, funds of funds and non-listed real estate debt products. The report offers detailed insights into global and regional capital raising figures.

The 2018 survey attracted a record number of participants with 175 fund managers globally completing the questionnaire, a 8% increase compared to 2017 when 162 fund managers responded to the survey. 76.6% of those surveyed raised a combined US$160.2 billion for non-listed real estate throughout 2017.  The Asia Pacific region attracted US$26.2 billion of equity, a significant increase to the previous years’ figure of US$22.9 billion.

The ANREV Australia Monthly Index saw a total return of 1.50% in March 2018, the one year rolling return at 11.98% illustrating the strong performance of the Australian market. The ANREV Australia Core Open End Fund Monthly Index currently includes 19 funds with a total GAV of AUD 98.01 billion.

Please contact Amélie Delaunay at [email protected] or Ricky Cheng at [email protected] if you have any questions regarding the Index.

Galaxis is located in the heart of one-north district, a 200-hectare development designed to host a cluster of world-class research facilities and business park space, and target end-users engaged in Biomedical Sciences, Infocomm Technology, Media, Physical Sciences and Engineering

The project’s objective is to develop a sustainable business park building that would achieve a higher BCA Green Mark Platinum standard. Key features include extensive greenery, recycling bins at common areas, high efficiency multi-tiered chiller plant and air-conditioning system, high eco-friendly interior fittings and materials, effective ETTV, as well as intelligent lighting control.

Galaxis was designed to achieve more than 30% energy consumption saving against the Singapore Building Control (Environmental Sustainability) Regulation 2008. This translates to an estimated energy and water consumption savings of S$0.9 million per annum.

This is a preliminary release of the Global Real Estate Fund Index, which shows the performance of non-listed real estate funds on a global scale and is created by ANREV, INREV and NCREIF. This publication includes the performance figures up to Q4 2017, and excludes the close end funds in U.S., due to longer reporting periods of U.S. close end funds. Another update on the index will be available in 3 weeks' time.  

Please send your queries on this release to [email protected].

ANREV has launched the third release of the IRR by vintage index. The ANREV IRR/Investment Multiple Index (The IRR Index) measures performance of value added and opportunistic non-listed closed end funds focused in Asia Pacific.

As this index is still relatively new, we would welcome any comments - please email [email protected]