Phl among most improved in real estate transparency

By CATHERINE TALAVERA

The Philippine real estate market is among the top 10 improvers in Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL)’s Global Real Estate Transparency Index, driven by its push for sustainability.

The country ranked 44th among 99 countries and 163 city regions included in the study, climbing a spot higher than its 45th ranking in 2018.

“Sustainability, including a rise in the number of greencertified buildings, contributed to the Philippines’ improvement. Developer focus on sustainability in the Philippines will be further boosted by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act 2019, which includes guidelines on energy conserving design on buildings,” said P. Ryan Isip, JLL Philippines’ head of capital markets.

Isip added that the Philippines has also undertaken an initiative to digitize land registry, leading to better quality records and easier access.

JLL placed the Philippines under the semi-transparent category, characterized as countries that have made steady improvements in recent years, but need to address issues around corporate governance and regulatory enforcement if they are to progress into the ‘transparent’tier.

“India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam are among the index’s top improvers due to regulatory reforms, enhanced market data and sustainability initiatives,” JLL said.

Apart from the Philippines, five more Asian countries were also included in the top 10 global improvers cited by JLL such as China (32nd), Thailand (33rd), India (34th),

Indonesia (40th) and Vietnam (56th).

JLL emphasized that a greater emphasis on corporate social responsibility and wider adoption of new technologies have driven the improvement of the emerging Asia Pacific markets.

“The backdrop of COVID-19 is also ensuring that transparency within Asia Pacific’s real estate legal and regulatory systems is more important than ever to global investors as they look to deploy approximately $40 billion in dry powder capital into the region,” JLL said.

It added that pressure exists from investors, businesses and consumers to further improve real estate transparency to compete with other asset classes and meet heightened expectations about the industry’s role in providing a sustainable and resilient built environment in the age of COVID-19.

“While investment into commercial real estate has inevitably paused during the pandemic, the overarching trend toward rising allocations to this asset class will continue,” JLL head of capital markets research for Asia Pacific Regina Lim said.

“As investors look to allocate more capital into real estate in this region, transparency becomes even more important, as will the enforcement of robust regulatory frameworks,” she added.

JLL’s biennial Global Real Estate Transparency Index quantified 210 separate elements of transparency, with additional coverage on sustainability and resilience, health and wellness, proptech and alternatives sectors.