Aerial view of Yangon city. Photo: Flickr
According to latest research from JLL, Yangon’s budding real estate market is expected to show moderate growth in 2016 as it recovers from the uncertainty of last year, reported The Nation.
The market cooled in 2015 as foreign investors waited to see the results of November’s historic elections. This caused office rents to fall while residential sales came to a standstill.
Andrew Gulbrandson, Research Head at JLL Thailand, is responsible for coordinating much of the firm’s consultancy work in Myanmar. He said this year will likely bring about stabilization in the overall market, and added that demand could soon pick up while new launches are expected to slow down after sharp growth.
“Though many challenges remain, we believe the outlook for this dynamic landscape in 2016 to be positive,” Gulbrandson explained. “So far, the formation of the new government has been smooth, easing concerns over the post-election political uncertainty. Ongoing ambiguity over the structure of the new government that has built up a legislative backlog affecting a number of regulations should be eliminated when the new government is formed.”
Many business activities in Myanmar were put on hold due to these concerns, but they are now expected to get back on track. This will likely help improve demand in Yangon’s real estate market. The city has been seeing a high level of real estate activity in recent years as military rule decreased and the process of liberalization started to take shape. However, ongoing uncertainty caused rents to drop last year.
“In addition, a more cautious approach that investors and developers have taken should lead to a decline in future project launches, allowing the existing supply to be gradually absorbed,” said Gulbrandson.
This article was first published on DDproperty.com, Thailand’s leading property site.
