Cushman & Wakefield Inc. intends to increase the headcount of its Asian brokerage and research teams to tap on the region’s growing property activity.
The world’s biggest privately held property services firm will add 10 to 15 people to the 25-staff regional research team over the next 18 months, said Sigrid Zialcita, Singapore-based managing director for Asia-Pacific research.
“We’re expanding to make sure both our core markets and the ones with growth potential are all being covered,” said Zialcita. She expects that overall investment in regional property will rise up to 15 percent this year.
According to CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), direct real estate investment in the region doubled to $46 billion in the first three quarters of the year and may hit $60 billion for the full year, as Asian currencies strengthened against the dollar and uncertainty over the European sovereign debt crisis abated.
Cushman, which has offices in 13 countries in the Asia Pacific, will also expand its brokerage team in the region by between 5 percent and 10 percent over the next 18 months, mainly in Southeast Asia and Greater China, said Zialcita.
Office rents in Asian cities like Singapore and Hong Kong are recovering from the global credit crisis, as financial service companies such as HSBC Holdings and Citigroup continue to expand in the region.
Store rents in Asia are also recovering, with Tokyo and Seoul both moving up in Cushman and Wakefield’s September survey of the most expensive store rents in the world.
The Asia-Pacific accounts for four of the top 10 locations in the survey, with Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay securing the second spot and Tokyo’s Ginza district coming third, behind New York’s Fifth Avenue.