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].

Positive returns in Q4

• The ANREV All Funds index returned 4.64%
• Value added and opportunity funds returned 7.77% and 4.38% respectively

Data contributions were received from 92 funds with a total gross asset value of US$129.1 billion. Further detail of the sub-indices which cover fund style and various geographies can be found in the full report.

We would like to thank all the companies that supported the data collection exercise and look forward to your continued support in the next round of data collection.

If you have any questions about the ANREV Index or want to take part in this industry-led initiative, please contact Ricky Cheng at [email protected] or Amélie Delaunay at [email protected]

ANREV, INREV, NCREIF and PREA are pleased to jointly release for industry consultation the first globally comparable measure of fees and costs named Total Global Expense Ratio (TGER).

The new proposed global standard measures the fees and costs related to participation in a real estate investment vehicle and enables comparison across products, regardless of the vehicle domicile, structure and management activities.

The Total Global Expense Ratio incorporates definitions from the Global Definitions Database, bringing consistent terminology for the most widely used vehicle fees and costs that may be charged directly and indirectly by investment managers and service providers.

The consultation process for TGER runs until 21 June to provide the industry with the opportunity to help design a global standard that is simple, practical and facilitates comparison and consistent reporting of fees and costs.

TGER and the GDD are initiatives of the Global Standards Steering Committee, established as a collaboration between INREV, ANREV, NCREIF and PREA to jointly develop comparable reporting standards for institutional real estate investment vehicles on a global basis.

For further information please contact:

Amelie Delaunay, ANREV

Constantin Sorlescu, INREV

Marybeth Kronenwetter, NCREIF PREA Reporting Standards

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]

ANREV has launched the first release of the ANREV Pan Asia Open-End Diversified Core Fund Index (Pan Asia ODCI).

The index serves demand from institutions investing in diversified core funds in Asia Pacific. 

As this is a new index, we would welcome any comments - please email Ricky Cheng at [email protected] or Amélie Delaunay at [email protected]