5 best Southeast Asian cities for LGBT property seekers

<img alt="AI, one of the great disruptive forces in the real estate sector. Adam Vilimek/Shutterstock" src="/documents/10204/0/shutterstock_166675769-compressor.jpg/fd0709af-2559-42ad-9d07-0b541e8da06e?t=1543311897987" style="width: 1000px; height: 667px;" />Jobs and machines have coexisted for millennia. But when the wheel and axle begin to behave more like their makers, perhaps it is time to bring out the ultimate contingency: playing up the quintessentially human ability to make decisions instead of doing repetitive tasks. Artificial intelligence is imperilling the livelihood of real estate agents. By 2020, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/01/02/why-artificial-intelligence-will-eliminate-millions-of-sales-jobs/" target="_blank">a million B2B salespeople</a> will lose their jobs to AI, according to Forrester. It has been a source of trepidation for salespeople in Asia Pacific alone, where AI-powered services now constitute 10 percent of the real estate industry. Meanwhile, a survey by Hubspot showed that 47 percent of consumers are now open to buying items through chatbots, which have been deemed to be efficient at automating appointment bookings. Search engines are one area where real estate players have embraced the perks of machine learning, or the application of AI on systems so they can improve from experience as opposed to being programmed. Earlier this year, Singapore-based tech giant PropertyGuru underwent a successful brand refresh, launching websites and mobile apps with machine learning algorithms that recognise behavioural cues and thereby predict consumers’ preferred homes and even content. “The biggest challenge today in the property sector is the matching of supply and demand,” said Hari Krishnan, CEO of PropertyGuru, which mounted the 2018 <a href="http://asiarealestatesummit.com" target="_blank">Asia Real Estate Summit</a> in November. “When a developer builds real estate, how do they match it to a property seeker?   “Platforms like us, coupled with artificial intelligence, are going to help the efficiency of that matching. Artificial intelligence underpins PropertyGuru’s platform itself, so I’m a big fan of it.” But a full-on robot uprising, this is not. The disintermediation of real estate, or the reduction in the use of intermediaries between developers and consumers, should foreseeably transpire in ways that will not completely devalue human insight.  <a href="http://www.property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-proptech-right-now-with-jll-s-george-thom-9" target="_blank">More: 5 questions for JLL's George Thomas</a> “It is untrue that the property agents will be disintermediated completely. Our view is that the property agents will now play a slightly different role,” said George Thomas, chief information officer and head of technology, data and information management for Asia Pacific at JLL, on the sidelines of the PropertyGuru Asia Real Estate Summit. “Given that the data collected within real estate is quite nuanced, it is going to require quite a bit of interpretation. Who better to interpret that than the subject matter experts in that space? At this point in the proptech evolution, technologies cannot stand independently of the business processes tied to them. “It is one thing for the technology to say, for example, that the bathroom needs cleaning. It is another for us to coordinate with a variety of different providers to make sure the bathrooms are cleaned periodically. Connecting the business process to the technology will remain important forever,” said Thomas. For agents raring for lead time in adapting to the times, machines are, fortunately, still not advanced enough to think for themselves. Real estate players today are more likely using augmented, rather than artificial, intelligence, synonymous with data-driven machine learning, said Thomas. Meanwhile, the construction sector, a crucial component of the real estate value chain, remains one of <a href="http://property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/digitalisation-of-construction-taking-building-productivity-into-the-fut-11" target="_blank">the least digitised sectors in the world</a>.  “It is quite important for agents to realise it is less about disintermediation and more about the job profile changing a bit,” said Thomas.

AI and machine learning: how property agents can survive the great job destroyers

<img alt="'Smart city' has been a subjective concept for many countries. Elnur/Shutterstock" src="/documents/10204/0/shutterstock_1235599819-compressor.jpg/3ad9b24a-a2bd-4219-ad8e-777ddf879f5e?t=1542946052016" style="width: 1000px; height: 667px;" />In the current hubbub around urban planning, two words occupy prime real estate: smart cities.  <div> Every city aspires to be called one. From India to <a href="http://www.property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/songdo-trailblazer-or-cautionary-tal-6" target="_blank">South Korea</a>, property developments and government missions have either attempted building smart cities from the ground up or groomed existing urban hubs to be billed as such, often with mixed results.   </div> <div> Policymakers and urban planners have struggled to come up with a unified definition for a smart city, with variable parametres on what makes a city intelligent. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a lot of fanfare in 2015 when he announced his Smart Cities Mission, before admitting that he did not know what the term exactly meant.   </div> <div> Having analysed more than 100 definitions related to smart cities, the International Telecommunication Union in 2014 arrived at this definition: “A smart sustainable city is an innovative city that uses ICTs and other means to improve quality of life, efficiency of urban operation and services and competitiveness, while ensuring that it meets the needs of present and future generations with respect to economic, social and environmental aspects.” </div> <div> “‘Smart city’ is just a buzzword. All we’re using is technology to improve a situation which is what we’ve always done for a long time,” said Charles Reed Anderson, founder of Charles Reed Anderson & Associates, in a panel discussion on smart cities around Asia Pacific at the <a href="http://asiarealestatesummit.com" target="_blank">PropertyGuru Asia Real Estate Summit</a> in November. </div> <div> “In reality, this is no different than the other things we experienced in the past. We’re just using it now for a city. As of right now, I don’t think there are already smart cities. I think there are cities that are good at marketing themselves as smart cities.”  </div> <div> As a qualifier, “smart” is even more relative in Asia Pacific where cities either display extreme wealth or crippling poverty. One’s idea of a smart urban development in an obscure Indian town may be basic in Dubai, for example.   <img alt="The panel on smart cities from around Asia Pacific consisted of (from left to right) Charles Reed Anderson, Founder, Charles Reed Anderson & Associates; Joelle Chen, Regional Head, Asia Pacific, World Green Building Council, Singapore; Dr. Okan Geray, Strategic Planning Advisor, Smart Dubai; Adam Beck, Executive Director, Smart Cities Council, Australia & New Zealand; and Terry Blackburn, Founder & Managing Director, Asia Property Awards, Property Report, Asia Real Estate Summit, PropertyGuru Group" src="/documents/10204/0/44973478375_b63eca3b3e_b-compressor.jpg/f0644759-8e19-4473-9e56-3bdd8d990cc7?t=1542946828806" /> </div> <div> “We talk about smart cities as if it’s a zero or one thing: you’re either a smart city or not a smart city. But everywhere I go, the context is so different; aspects of cities are so incredibly different from each other,” said Dr. Okan Geray, strategic planning advisor for Smart Dubai, an initiative which aims to make Dubai the world's smartest city.    </div> <div> “I really believe the challenges faced by each and every city is very different. We try to put them in all in the same basket, but it is very difficult. The issues [other cities] face in terms of housing, mobility—some have no roads, no transportation—these are not really the same issues that we face in Dubai." “What is a ‘good city’? What is a ‘smart city’? A lot of the emerging economies are still at the level of defining what is a good city,” said Singapore-based Joelle Chen, regional head, Asia Pacific for the World Green Building Council.   </div> <div class="pull-quotes-container">A smart city has got to be productive, got to be healthy, got to be efficient. When you start looking at the health and wellbeing metric in a building, you start thinking about how productive you are in a space</div> <div> Perhaps a smart city is really the sum of its parts, in that it would be remiss of urban planners to not think of it as an amalgam of sustainable, intelligent buildings.   </div> <div> “If you think about it, the buildings themselves are almost the micro-version of the cities. Anything that we think about in terms of the city itself, whether it’s mobility, food issues, energy, healthcare, or education to a certain extent—all of them are manifesting themselves in the micro-environment of buildings,” said Geray.   </div> <div> <a href="http://property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/digitalisation-of-construction-taking-building-productivity-into-the-fut-11" target="_blank">More: How digitalisation of construction will take builder productivity into the future</a> One major metric the World Green Building Council has used to determine the intelligence of a city is citizen wellbeing by way of indoor air quality. The quality of air within buildings has had an underrated impact on cognitive function, seeing as humans breathe 15,000 litres of air every day as opposed to drinking about three litres of water.   </div> <div> "For me, a smart city has got to be productive, got to be healthy, got to be efficient. When you start looking at the health and wellbeing metric in a building, you start thinking about how productive you are in a space,” Chen said, exhorting developers to create more carbon-neutral portfolios in time for 2030, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) deadline for preventing climate change catastrophe.  </div> <div> “Buildings are meant for people. Otherwise, buildings will be weapons of mass destruction."  </div> <div> The Smart Cities Council - Australia & New Zealand, in partnership with the Green Building Council of Australia, released last month the Code for Smart Communities, which parses smart urban developments for property developers and technologists. The code attempts to encapsulate smart communities in a range of principles: strategic, connected, aware, responsive, and innovative.  <div class="pull-quotes-container">The green building movement is one of the most transformational movements in history</div> “The hard work that nobody has never done yet is put metrics around those,” said Adam Beck, the council's executive director. “We really started giving the development industry and the property sector some tangible metrics to define those ideas.”  In Australia, developers may not build premium-grade commercial buildings in a major city unless it is rated by Green Star, the national and voluntary rating system for buildings and communities.  “The green building movement is one of the most transformational movements in history,” said Beck. "It took a little while to get going because of the pushback. There was no demand for it. Twenty-three years later, we’ve seen a global movement. It’s been absolutely phenomenal.”  <a href="http://property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/state-of-the-economy-a-conversation-with-the-economist-s-andrew-stapl-5" target="_blank">More: A conversation with The Economist's Andrew Staples</a> <div> Use cases are often overlooked in the thrust toward becoming a smart city, an omission Taipei is ameliorating in its own urban development project. The city’s Smart City Project Management Office (PMO) has interviewed 30,000 citizens to understand their desires for the city and talked to around 400 different ICT vendors to deliver those solutions. Such synergies between public servants and IT players have resulted in around 135 proofs-of-concept, ranging from smart streetlights to autonomous vehicles, with Taipei as their test bed.   </div> <div> “Don’t get me wrong; a lot of them will fail but at least they’re experimenting and trying to identify these new use cases,” Anderson said.   </div> <div> “What we’re lacking in smart cities is the experimentation because we don’t know the use cases. We know we can do infrastructure-centric solutions but not citizen-centric ones.”  <img alt="Panel discussion on smart cities from around Asia Pacific was staged on the second and final day of the PropertyGuru Asia Real Estate Summit 2018" src="/documents/10204/0/45886676671_898043490e_b-compressor.jpg/ce4a827a-2800-44d6-a4a4-beb2d44627d4?t=1542947265346" /> </div> <div> Dubai has been similarly people-oriented, having regularly put out questionnaires that ask its cosmopolitan, expatriate-dominated populace: what makes them happy? In its quest to become “the happiest city on earth”, Smart Dubai has identified and sought to digitise roughly 75 “customer journeys” or experiences crucial to the daily lives of residents, from education and health to so much as taking the taxi.    </div> <div> “What we see in smart city projects today, you have almost standard, cookie-cutter solutions being applied across the board to any city. I don’t think that’s a very scaleable approach,” Geray said.   </div> <div> The emirate’s interrogatory efforts managed to wrest a common thread from those experiences: the need to truncate paper-based processes in the government. The Dubai Paperless Strategy was launched last year as a result, aiming to make procedures in the emirati government paper-free by December 2021.   </div> <div> In a way, developing smart cities rely on counterintuition, having technology take a backseat to the people. Urban planners need to reverse-engineer a community’s vision of utopia, strip them to a set of desired outcomes, and define key performance indicators of initiatives working toward them.    </div> <div> “It’s like working backwards from the concept of happiness and then coming up with solutions, not starting with asking: ‘How can I apply technology on the city?’ It should be the other way around. The needs of the city’s inhabitants are very important,” Geray said.    </div> <div> “After all, ‘what is the city but the people?’”  </div> </div>

Smart cities in Asia Pacific: lessons, challenges, opportunities

<img alt="Monito/Flickr" src="/documents/10204/0/fintech-lead-compressor.jpg/34074e7f-7de5-44d4-b474-e37736baf4d5?t=1542713761735" style="width: 1128px; height: 667px;" /> Capital raising has become one of the more exciting spaces in the real estate industry as the phenomenon of sophisticated fintech or financial technologies muscles into the picture.  The intricacies of fintech have had significant corollaries on the very manner in which property is owned and transacted. "The catchphrase for real estate is no longer 'location, location, location.' It’s now 'technology, technology, technology,'" said Benedict Andrew Lim, managing director for Southeast Asian real estate at Ernst & Young, who moderated the panel discussion on fintech at the <a href="http://asiarealestatesummit.com" target="_blank">PropertyGuru Asia Real Estate Summit</a> earlier this month. But it bears reminding that fintech, for all the innovations it brings to real estate, is nothing new. “Fintech or financial technology has been around for a long time,” said Dr. Florian M. Spiegl, co-founder and COO of the Hong Kong-based company FinFabrik.  “In fact, if you go all the way back to the 1880s, we moved from sending money cross-country on horse carriages to actually wiring money. That was fintech.”   Contemporary fintech, however, is an entirely different ballgame—a movement that hatched concurrently with the arrival of the iPhone, and mobility, for that matter, in the late 2000s, Spiegl noted.   “We’re moving from going to the banks and falling in line to making payments on your mobile,” fintech advisor and panellist Phonpimol Pathomsak said. “People who in the past never had access to loans and financial services could now get them more easily. Everything is in a mobile phone.” What follows are some of the more salient points we gleaned from the panel: 1. Rising digitisation of property ownership                                                                           With the world's real estate valued at USD280.6 trillion as of last year, a significant portion of that is going to be up for tokenisation or the process of representing the ownership of real world assets digitally on a blockchain, according to Christopher J. Marriott, CEO for Southeast Asia at Savills. Tokenisation makes the selling of property more fluid, rendering obsolete those days when a physical deed or certificate is the only thing that can pass for proof of ownership. Tokenisation plays out like "writing the content of those certificates into the smart contract of the token, plus digitising the actual document,” Spiegl explained. “Imagine the token not just representing ownership of that asset but the entire legal history that can be disclosed of that asset. Once you have a dual structure — the physical-world representation of ownership and the digital-world representation — you can’t detach the two. You can add liquidity to the digital element, very easily transact it.” <h4>2. Nascent regulatory frameworks</h4> Regulatory and legal frameworks still hamper fintech from flourishing more than it already has. For now, fintech sits firmly within the sphere of financial services capital markets; existing rules apply. For example, Hong Kong’s SFC recently issued a statement requiring a type 149 licence of asset managers dabbling in cryptocurrencies, at par with other securities, noted Spiegl.   Singapore is also working on the regulatory framework for asset backed-securities, which represent the tokenisation of a real estate asset over equity and debt, said Marriott.  "Within that there’s a real need to look at the token structure and the smart contract that effectively is what gets you listed for sale. All of the regulation around that is in a very primitive stage," Marriott stated. "Both the manufacturers, those people trying to create the token, and the regulators are debating how that can be done." "Regulators are still getting into this space," Spiegl noted. "They're still aiming to understand they dynamics of it. And their job is to protect the end consumers. The whole industry is looking forward to how regulators can give us the rules so we know what to comply with and build businesses that are robust and put end consumers first." <a href="http://www.property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-proptech-right-now-with-jll-s-george-thom-9" target="_blank">More: 5 questions for JLL's George Thomas</a> 3. Asset-backed securities vs. cryptocurrencies Enthusiasts in the fintech space are getting excited over asset-backed securities and the fact that they can create representation of ownership of an asset on a blockchain protocol. "Asset-backed security is not a cryptocurrency. Effectively you can buy a token or a fraction of interest in this building and it may contain both equity and debt," Marriott said.  However, there is yet to be "strength of interest" from institutional investors to move into the asset-backed security marketplace, he said. "There are two reasons for that. First, it’s their market. If you start fractionalised ownership, you open up that market to everybody; they cannibalise their own marketplace. "Second there is no regulatory framework, there is no access to the market for this to occur," he added. <img alt="Moderated by Benedict Andrew Lim, managing director, Southeast Asian real estate at Ernst & Young, the panel on fintech at the PropertyGuru Asia Real Estate Summit consisted of Christopher J. Marriott, CEO, Southeast Asia, Savills; Dr Florian M. Spiegl, co-founder and COO, FinFabrik; and Phonpimol Pathomsak, fintech advisor" src="/documents/10204/0/A_0648-compressor.jpg/55de8f37-b159-4bb2-b5b1-0e69dee2c815?t=1542714936655" /> <h4>4. Easier access to credit</h4> Fintech has been a boon to financial inclusion in many developing countries, especially in Thailand where around 80 percent of people still need to take out loans to be able to acquire property, said Phonpimol. The fintech expert was the former CEO of Refinn, an online mortgage platform that assists customers in the loan application process and improves their chances of an approval. It does so by matching them with the right short-term and long-term offers by lenders. “There are a lot of people that would get rejected and never ever get the loan. Rejection basically because the customer is not qualified," she said. "It’s not their fault entirely; sometimes it’s because of the inefficiency of the bank, and also because the operation is taking too much time to verify the person.” <a href="http://property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/state-of-the-economy-a-conversation-with-the-economist-s-andrew-stapl-5" target="_blank">More: A conversation with The Economist's Andrew Staples</a> <h4>5. REIT vs tokens</h4> Tokens are far more affordable than REIT structures, which has “fees on fees on fees,” noted Marriott. “A token has everything included. The ownership would be included in a smart contract that can move from one person to another very efficiently.” In comparing tokens to REITs, Florian brings up the emotional factor that the former bring to investors, especially younger ones. “Strangely enough we tend to forget investment into real estate has an emotional component. Is there a less sexy product than a REIT? “Think about how we enable fractional ownership. People can walk up to a shopping mall, residential property, and say, 'This is my building.' We’re bringing back that emotional attachment. Now that sounds soft, but I think it’s very important for the next generation of investors to have a tangible element to their investment.”

Fintech in real estate: 5 takeaways from the PropertyGuru Asia Real Estate Summit 2018

<img alt="Pedestrians along Orchard Road, Singapore. Suchart Boonyavech/Shutterstock" src="/documents/10204/0/shutterstock_1045118092-compressor.jpg/4fcdc332-2bc8-4fe3-95e3-b1daa351748f?t=1542344288615" style="width: 1000px; height: 667px;" />Cradling 8.5 percent of the world’s population, Southeast Asia is brimming with overly populous cities. The convergence of humanity in this part of the world presents a motherlode of challenges to urban planners. The population boom is also a catalyst for urban sprawl and, along with it, demand for greenhouse-gas-guzzling private vehicles. To counter the colossal pressures besetting the region’s urban hubs, "behavioral change” is in order, particularly in outmoded attitudes toward walkability, according to Chintan Raveshia, Cities lead of the Cities and Planning team at Arup Singapore. Success is subjective, and for many Asians, it is predicated on car ownership. “There’s a lot of people in this part of the world where people think buying a car is the future. That doesn’t need to be,” Raveshia said on the sidelines of the <a href="http://asiarealestatesummit.com" target="_blank">PropertyGuru Real Estate Summit</a>, where he delivered a keynote speech. As a consequence of these social mores, pedestrian spaces often take a backseat to high-stakes road projects. Only two million Filipinos own private vehicles, for example, but in Metro Manila, an urban agglomeration of more than 12 million, sidewalks have no proper setback rules, forcing pedestrians to squeeze into dangerous one-lane walks. <img alt="Chintan Raveshia, Cities lead of the Cities and Planning team at Arup Singapore, delivering his keynote speech at the PropertyGuru Asia Real Estate Summit 2018" src="/documents/10204/0/A_0855-compressor.jpg/70d442ee-fa45-4d19-827d-83a6c02c31d5?t=1542345191355" /> Worse yet, uninterruptible urban sprawl has trebled the rise of low-density developments that can only be reached by cars, compounding the problem of carbon emissions from the city. “We want people’s idea of growth and progress to change … to make people accept that walking is cool and it’s okay. To make that people think that walking is not pulling them down in their class structure." There is still much to learn from Southeast Asia though. Raveshia, a Singapore resident, cited a recent survey in his city that suggested buying cars is falling out of favour with young demographic cohorts even as government regulations continue to impinge on car ownership. <a href="http://property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/connecting-the-dots-the-rise-of-the-megacity-archipelag-5" target="_blank">More: Building a 'megacity archipelago' is the future, says Parag Khanna</a> “The next generation does not aim at buying a car anymore. They want to use that money for experience,” he said. Raveshia, who has lent his expertise to modern transport projects in the UK, Sydney, and Kocaeli in Turkey, has reason to be optimistic about Southeast Asian cities. Most might as well be cities in Europe of 100 years ago — they were able to transcend such pressures to arrive at where they are now. “I see that progress is going to be much quicker for us here in Asia because we already know the mistakes of the past to be able to reform those and move around very quickly to where we need to be,” he said.

What makes a successful Asian city? The answer is in walkability

<img alt="The US-China trade dispute represents a key risk to global economic outlook. ittoilmatar/Shutterstock" src="/documents/10204/0/shutterstock_1185877720-compressor.jpg/0deb5792-ba14-40a3-a872-b0ee704db97e?t=1542285024861" style="width: 1000px; height: 667px;" />The US-China trade war will accelerate shifts in the global economic supply chain and Chinese outbound investment markets, according to thought leaders gathered at the <a href="http://asiarealestatesummit.com/" target="_blank">PropertyGuru Asia Real Estate Summit</a>.  While the dispute has bruised consumer confidence in China, its upshot will not be a reduction in the US trade deficit as President Donald Trump had hoped, according to Andrew Staples, editorial director and chief economist at The Economist Corporate Network (ECN). “It won't get the deficit down. It will simply mean that supply chains move to other countries, whether it be soya beans in Brazil or automative exports from Thailand,” Staples told attendees at the summit where he delivered the first keynote address.  "We don't think the trade war is justified action," he added.  Similarly, the trade war will see Chinese buying inquiries riven into two trends, one being plunging demand for stateside residential products, according to Carrie Law, CEO of Juwai.com.   “One is wait-and-see, do nothing. The other is a shift in demand into regional targets, into Southeast Asian countries,” she said on the sidelines of the summit. “We can see that [buying] inquiries for the US, as well as Australia, dropped by double digits. The growth in North Asian countries are also up. “Obviously the demand is still there. It’s just not the same locations.” <img alt="Andrew Staples, editorial director at the Economist Corporate Network (ECN)" src="/documents/10204/0/A_0332-compressor.jpg/dc2ecc13-96a5-4e44-bc16-7480bdc06316?t=1542285526656" /> The trade dispute morphing into a full-blown global trade war will be the number one risk and bring "colder" headwinds to the global economy into the next year, predicted Staples. Presenting his 2019 forecast for the region, Staples warned that the tit-for-tat tariffs between the states and China constitute the topmost risk to their economic outlook for next year. “Their relations are very poor. We don’t think this is good for global growth, we don’t think this is good for global security,” Staples said.   “This is something we’re very, very worried about.” <a href="http://property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/state-of-the-economy-a-conversation-with-the-economist-s-andrew-stapl-5" target="_blank">More: A conversation with The Economist's Andrew Staples</a> Already, the trade dispute has riven Asian economies into distinct winners and losers, according to a new report released earlier this month by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), an ECN company. Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan are projected to lose in the ICT sector, for example, in contrast to winners like Vietnam, Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Thailand. Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Vietnam are poised to be the trade war’s winning economies in terms of ready-made garment manufacturing, while Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam are set to excel in automotive production. China’s losing luster as a manufacturing destination reflects its growing affluence and transformation into a consumption-driven market. “If you went to China 25 years ago, it has lots of low-cost labour to make t-shirts and shoes. That’s all gone now to places like Vietnam, Bangladesh, and elsewhere — which is a more positive story. [The Chinese] have more money to spend.”

How the trade war will alter the global economy and Chinese property market

5 best Southeast Asian cities for LGBT property seekers

Tolerance and acceptance toward gay rights grows in Southeast Asia. lazyllama/Shutterstock The power of pink money cannot be denied. With tolerance, diversity and acceptance winning important battles in the culture wars, targeting property marketing efforts toward people who identify as LGBTQIA+ is paramount.

Being sensitive to property buyers across the full spectrum of sexual orientation is even more exigent in Asia where 90 million LGBT consumers⁠ reside in China alone, making it the world’s third-largest pink economy after Europe and the US. LGBT Chinese commanded an annual purchasing power of USD938 billion last year, their household savings hovering at USD1.5 trillion. Despite such massive disposable incomes and wealth, LGBT property hunters are still ignored by marketers in popular investment destinations.

Southeast Asia is becoming more tolerant, if not welcoming, on this front. Increasingly inclusive attitudes, combined with a cavalcade of residential properties at low initial purchase prices, position several cities in the region as sanctuaries for LGBT property seekers: offering them an escape from less accepting locales.

We count down to some of the gay-friendliest property markets in Asia, as determined by leading Chinese property portal Juwai.com. These cities better slay:

5. Ho Chi Minh City

HCMC, Vietnam. saiko3p/Shutterstock

In 2015, the Law on Marriage and Family was implemented, effectively decriminalising same-sex weddings in Vietnam. Although it technically does not offer legal protections to the unions, the measure foreshadows a mellowing in Vietnamese attitudes toward the LGBT community, many of whom have found sanctuary in Ho Chi Minh City. Chinese LGBT buyers, for one, believe investment prospects in Ho Chi Minh City are good; yields reach up to six percent through eight percent, according to Juwai.com. Foreigners can acquire up to 30 percent of new condominium projects in Vietnam’s largest city.

Like pre-boom Shanghai, HCMC is undergoing a wave of infrastructure projects set to give land values a windfall. Yet premium home prices in HCMC are still about half the value of similar properties in the number one city on this list, Juwai.com reported. Competitively priced premium units begin at less than USD150,000.

4. Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh-based NGOs have pioneered LGBT-friendly initiatives. khlungcenter/Shutterstock

In 2004, King Norodom Sihanouk made public statements in support of laws extending marriage rights to same-sex couples. Cambodia, especially its capital, has since become one of the more progressive safe spaces for LGBT Asians. A nongovernmental organisation, Rainbow Community Kampuchea (RoCK), introduced the Declaration of Family Relationship (DoFR) initiative, allowing for civil contracts between people of the same sex to share family responsibilities, even own joint assets.

“When I read about that, I thought, 'Wow, this is so compelling,'” recounted Janet Minard, founder and president of Canadian firm Toronto Home Realty which is developing an 843,000-square-foot (78,317 square metres) site in Phnom Penh. "It's a young nation [that] basically is slowly adopting what the western society has had to fight so hard for.

“Here's a country doing things that are right rather than dealing with mistakes that perhaps the first-world nations have made to get to the point of acceptance and tolerance.”

Phnom Penh today is a far cry from the war-torn city that the Cambodian-born Minard left when she was all but 21 days old. The Khmer metropolis currently has 8,942 luxury apartments, expected to number around 22,828 units by the end of 2018, Juwai.com reported, citing industry sources.⁠

3. Manila

View of the skyline of Makati, Metro Manila. Jon Bilous/Shutterstock

While Catholic conservatism reigns in the Philippines, many denizens in the capital have overcome religious beliefs enough to accommodate the fast-changing milieu. Marriage equality is still not legal in the Philippines, but Manila made history in 1994 for hosting Asia’s first gay pride parade. More recently, firebrand President Rodrigo Duterte has made some of the strongest pronouncements by an incumbent leader in favour of same-sex marriage.

Prime homes in Manila have seen prices rising in each of the past three years, with rents growing by five percent to 10 percent per annum, Juwai.com reported. Starting prices are still low, at least by LGBT Chinese standards. A one-bedroom apartment listed on Juwai.com in Quezon City has an entry price of about USD62,000. Chinese buying inquiries about Manila properties on the site were up 122 percent quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of 2018.

2. Phuket

Phuket Sunday Walking Street Market. BREEZY STOCK/Shutterstock

For LGBT buyers seeking sand and surf more than skyscrapers, Phuket is one of the better locations in the world to purchase great holiday homes. Members of the LGBT community seeking to fulfill both lifestyle and investment goals are well-served in the city and island of the same name.

Dozens of LGBT-oriented venues dot Phuket, especially in the Patong resort area. Every April, tourists flock to the island for a weeklong Pride festival. LGBT buyers most commonly purchase new properties, with developers dangling rental guarantees; many home owners go on to rent out the units when they are out of Phuket. A fewer others come to live full time, enjoying boltholes far removed from the noise of the intolerant crowd.

1. Bangkok

Rainbow over Sao Ching Cha (Giant Swing) and Wat Suthat in Bangkok, Thailand. Natapat2521/Shutterstock

While Thailand currently does not recognise same-sex marriages, it is the de facto gay capital of Asia. Same-sex intercourse is not punishable by law in the kingdom, unlike certain Asian countries; Buddhist monks even officiate same-sex weddings. Many nightspots and hospitality businesses are unabashedly geared toward gay visitors.

It is little wonder then that many LGBT Chinese would love to call Bangkok home. According to Juwai.com, 45 percent of buyer inquiries from LGBT Chinese for Bangkok properties are for the purchasers’ own use.

For gay people escaping parochial attitudes in their home countries, Bangkok property is relatively within reach. At USD4,500 per square metre, the typical new luxury condominium in Bangkok sells for one-sixth the price of similar homes in Hong Kong, according to Juwai.com estimates. More affordable luxury condominiums start from USD130,000 — low for a major Asian metropolis. Keen on investing? Land values have climbed 1,000 percent over the past 30 years, while centrally located condominiums have doubled in the last five years.

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<img alt="Flats above a basketball court in Hong Kong. WJRVisuals/Shutterstock" src="/documents/10204/0/shutterstock_572288722-compressor.jpg/50184ce1-5eee-4a59-aa9e-151d4223ee60?t=1544786151435" style="width: 1000px; height: 667px;" />Hong Kong once again is the most expensive city in which one can purchase a high-end residential property in Asia, according to the annual Wealth Report released last week by Julius Baer. Residential property prices in the city, last year's chart-topper, stand at USD54,307 per square metre, a growth of 5.26 percent over the past year.  “Strict capital controls and changes in tax rules have not deterred Chinese capital inflows. This, coupled with limited supply of luxury properties, led prices to rise,” Julius Baer wrote in the report. However, the recent prime rate hike by major lenders should lead mortgage rates to rise, which would affect property market sentiment, it added. “The extent of the negative impact on home-buying sentiment would depend on the magnitude of future rate hikes.” <a href="http://www.property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/hong-kong-now-home-to-more-crazy-rich-people-than-new-yo-3" target="_blank">More: Hong Kong now home to more ‘crazy rich’ people than New York</a> The cost of homes in Hong Kong puts it well above the second-most expensive city on the list, Tokyo, where prices have dropped 1.18 percent over the year to USD40,878 per square metre. Singapore is third most expensive city in Asia for buying homes, fetching USD26,528 per square metre or an increase of 6.88 percent from 2017. Shanghai ranks fourth costliest, having grown its home prices by a speedy 19.03 percent over the past year to USD25,442 per square metre. The cost of a home in Taipei have reached USD22,817 per square metre or an annual rise of 5.24 percent, making it fifth priciest in Asia. Seoul, Mumbai, Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, and Kuala Lumpur round out the top 11 in that order.

These are the most expensive cities in Asia for residential property

<img alt="Traditional wooden shoes (geta) by the path of a Japanese ryokan. Annie Bombanie/Shutterstock" src="/documents/10204/0/shutterstock_698714041-compressor.jpg/7d41ad88-560e-4de0-a1b0-e99537fdb4a4?t=1544785034148" style="width: 1000px; height: 666px;" />Remember Japan’s <a href="http://www.property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/japan-is-so-full-of-empty-homes-that-it-s-giving-them-aw-9" target="_blank">grand empty home giveaway</a>? Now an organisation seems to have found good use for the country's long line of abandoned, derelict buildings. A Tokyo-based nonprofit won Thursday a World Habitat award for converting vacant, empty properties into suitable shelter for single mothers, <a href="http://news.trust.org//item/20181213085517-e4gw6/" target="_blank">Thomson Reuters Foundation</a> reported. Little Ones, based in Tokyo, has helped more than 300 single mothers find a home in the Japanese capital as well as Osaka and Chiba over the last 10 years. Taking advantage of a 2015 law that encourages the reuse of abandoned houses, Little Ones has been able to work with housing authorities and obtain grants from the government to renovate abandoned homes. Single mothers can then get access to safe, decent housing at subsidised prices. All too often, single mothers are considered social pariahs and are barred from employment opportunities in Japan, according to Little Ones' chief executive Kunihisa Koyama. <a href="http://www.property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/why-the-tokyo-property-market-s-best-years-are-still-ahe-8" target="_blank">More: Why the Tokyo property market's best years are still ahead</a> "Apartment owners often refuse single mothers because they are not considered financially stable. The social stigma, lack of economic opportunities and high costs in cities like Tokyo mean the majority of single mothers live in poverty," he said. The number of single mothers in the archipelago is on the rise while the overall population is rapidly greying, a phenomenon which has resulted in the surge of empty and abandoned homes around the archipelago. Single-mother households in Japan increased to 712,000 between 1992 and 2016, according to the ministry of health. Fewer than half receive alimony, Reuters noted. Meanwhile, the child poverty rate for working single-parent households in Japan ranks top among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations. Around 14 percent of housing stock in Japan are now considered empty, abandoned properties, a fraction set to grow to a third of all homes by 2033.

Here’s one way Japan can put its empty homes to use

<img alt="Construction work in Boten, Laos. KINGMALA LAVETH/Shutterstock" src="/documents/10204/0/shutterstock_1016332129-compressor.jpg/ffddd10c-03e3-4eb4-9e6a-bd9d64bb54fc?t=1544778610863" style="width: 1000px; height: 667px;" />The first T-shaped concrete beam for the Laos-China Railway was erected last week in Vientiane, signifying another step toward improving connectivity between the neighbouring countries. The construction milestone marks the transition of the Belt and Road project from <a href="https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50555829/1st-bridge-beam-erected-along-china-laos-railway/" target="_blank">“substructure to superstructure,”</a> according to builder China Railway No.2 Engineering Group (CREC-2), per Xinhua. The 414-kilometre project, which broke ground in 2016, will likely serve as a boon to key towns alongside the tracks. From Vientiane, high-speed trains terminate at the border town of Boten before connecting to the Yuxi-Mohan Railway in China’s southern Yunnan province. Boten enjoyed a short spell of economic boom in the 2000s after the Lao government agreed to let a Chinese firm set up a 1,640-hectare special economic zone around town. <a href="http://www.property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/the-rise-of-southeast-asia-s-sleepiest-capi-10" target="_blank">More: The rise of Southeast Asia's sleepiest capital</a> The town went on to acquire infamy as a gambling haven, prompting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing to order the closure of casinos and even cut the power supply to town. “China’s new focus on Boten is to make it a transportation hub facilitating greater Chinese penetration of Laos,” Paul Chambers, director of research at the Institute of South East Asian Affairs in Thailand, told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/07/world/asia/china-laos-boten-gambling.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> in 2016. <a href="https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/2160947/chinese-tourist-invasion-feared-high-speed-laos-china" target="_blank">Around 210,133 Chinese tourists</a> made the overland crossing to Laos last year, a number that could swell once the trains become operational. The trains will run at speeds of up to 160 kilometres per hour. With a development price tag of USD6 billion, the railway was originally set to open in December 2021.

Laos-China railway marks another milestone

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<img alt="Santorini, Greece. Maridav/Shutterstock" src="/documents/10204/0/shutterstock_1064319371-compressor.jpg/388daa13-352f-412e-b54d-241b24f84e77?t=1540814749951" style="width: 1000px; height: 667px;" />With its attractive citizenship-for-investment scheme and appealing Mediterranean climate, Greece continues to be one of the most favourite destinations for Chinese capital flight. Real estate prices have been on the rebound in the once-ailing economy this year, rising 0.8 percent year-on-year in the second quarter and 0.1 percent in the previous, Reuters reported, citing Bank of Greece data. Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Greek property had surged 91 percent to EUR287 million (USD327 million) last year from 2016, while taxes from property sales hit EUR204.7 million, up 41 percent in the seven months to July, according to state revenue authority AADE. “We are getting much more phone calls,” Lefteris Potamianos, head of the Real Estate Association of Athens, told Reuters. “The overwhelming majority is foreigners and there are yet some Greeks. Certainly, Chinese are by far ahead of the game.” <a href="http://www.property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/the-mediterranean-is-still-the-dream-second-home-for-wealthy-asia-7" target="_blank">More: The Mediterranean is still the dream second-home destination for wealthy Asians</a> Home prices are set to rise by five to seven percent annually on average in the Greater Athens area this year and the next as more Chinese ferret out Greece's famed golden visas, he predicted.   Almost 1,700 residency permits have been issued to Chinese nationals as part of the programme, begun in 2013 to help the country in the wake of the sovereign debt crisis, according to data from investment agency Enterprise Greece. Meanwhile, inquiries for Greek property from mainland Chinese doubled in Q1 2018 and jumped thrice in the succeeding quarter — a “dramatic growth” according to Carrie Law, CEO of Juwai.com which supplied the data. Chinese interest in Greek property has only gained a boost since the US, Canada and Australia, three of the traditional western destinations for outbound investment, unveiled tighter migration measures over the last year, noted Alice Ma, sales manager at Beijing-based Bloom Consulting.

Chinese lead resurgent foreign demand for Greek homes

<img alt="Aerial view of downtown Vancouver on a summer evening. EB Adventure Photography/Shutterstock" src="/documents/10204/0/shutterstock_498860062-compressor.jpg/57d167e0-e145-4c4b-9d4a-d9df20f6ab36?t=1540469920227" style="width: 1000px; height: 667px;" />Following several quarters of lull, the Chinese seem to be back in one of their favourite Canadian markets. Inquiries by mainland Chinese property seekers on the property portal Juwai.com skyrocketed 130.8 percent in the third quarter from a trough in the second quarter, the <a href="https://www.vancourier.com/real-estate/exclusive-chinese-buyer-interest-in-metro-vancouver-real-estate-soars-again-1.23473185" target="_blank">Vancouver Courier</a> reported. “This is an upswelling of demand that we frankly didn’t expect,” Juwai.com CEO Carrie Law exclusively told the Courier. The report is a complete turnaround for Metro Vancouver, which slipped from second most-searched Canadian city on the site in 2016 to fifth this year, trailing Greater Toronto, Montréal, Calgary and Ottawa. “While more expensive than alternatives like Montreal, Vancouver still offers Chinese the prospect of homes or apartments at a relatively low price compared to similar property in China,” Law explained. <a href="http://property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/stop-laundering-money-in-our-real-estate-british-colum-10" target="_blank">More: British Columbia government to probe money laundering in real estate</a> The apartment price per square metre in downtown Vancouver is 37 percent lower than Shanghai, she added, citing Numbeo. Chinese buyers have been on the lookout for safe harbour in Canada as the mainland government continues to regulate speculation in residential markets. Jitters brought on by the trade war and a depreciating yuan have also contributed to a resurgence in Chinese buying inquiries for Vancouver property. “Most middle-class and upper-middle-class Chinese owe much of their financial security to their homes and investment properties in China, which have appreciated massively over the past two decades. But determined government policy seems to be bringing an end to price appreciation and could even cause prices to fall for the first time,” Law said. Between April and June, the number of inquiries for Vancouver real estate on Juwai.com hit its lowest level since early 2015, Law pointed out. “It’s like a sinkhole opened up and swallowed all the buyers. That was the result of several quarters of plunging demand.”

Why Chinese buyers are returning to Vancouver

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<img alt="Front view of the award-winning building proposal CUBO" src="/documents/10204/0/CUBO+-+winning+entry+of+RICS+Cities+for+our+Future++%28front%29+for+site.jpg/c6318d38-4165-4f74-a820-448dca4d8bf8?t=1543546953179" style="width: 1185px; height: 667px;" />An affordable, expandable housing solution to Manila’s squalid living conditions won the Cities for Our Future challenge by The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).   Earl Patrick Forlales, 23, from the Philippines wowed judges with his take on the local “bahay kubo” or stilt house, beating more than 1,200 entries worldwide. Like its forerunners, CUBO is made of bamboo, treated and laminated, allowing builders to keep construction costs down to just GBP60 (USD77) per square metre. <img alt="Artist's impression of the CUBO kitchen" src="/documents/10204/0/CUBO+-+winning+entry+of+RICS+Cities+for+our+Future++%28kitchen%29.jpg/55661fac-494b-4a20-b4ec-79dd854e597c?t=1543547190938" /> With features like a tilted roof that captures rainwater and reduces heat gain, CUBO proposes a dignified alternative to typical dwellings in Manila’s sprawling slums. Multiple units can be configured together in such a way that residents can take advantage of communal kitchens, bathrooms or offices. Construction of CUBO should take no more than four hours after the arrival of an installation team. Bamboo is abundant in the Philippine islands, where it thrives even on poor-quality soil and can be harvested annually without leading to soil degradation. <a href="http://www.property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/this-vietnamese-townhouse-is-actually-a-brick-ca-6" target="_blank">More: Stylish Hanoi home has holes in the walls</a> Forlales offers CUBO as a low-cost housing option for below-minimum wage earners in the overpopulated metropolis. At an estimated rental cost of just GBP0.20 a day, a CUBO unit could turn a profit within 5.1 years. “This is a huge step forward to helping the people of Manila,” Forlales said in a statement. “The state of housing in the city is at crisis point, and will undoubtedly get worse with this new influx of workers. <img alt="Artist's impression of a bedroom in CUBO" src="/documents/10204/0/CUBO+-+winning+entry+of+RICS+Cities+for+our+Future+%28bedroom%29.jpg/f4c1e5fa-2562-4a80-b8e4-d2ab40d91323?t=1543547588812" /> “CUBO started as nothing more than an idea, conceived while spending time at my grandparent’s house – it is incredible to think that it now will become a reality.” Forlales’ prize money of GBP50,000 will allow him to start work on CUBO next year. He hopes to replicate the homes in areas across Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa. Find more images of CUBO, courtesy of <a href="https://www.rics.org/asean/about-rics/where-we-are/asean-and-china/" target="_blank">RICS</a>: <img alt="The courtyard at CUBO" src="/documents/10204/0/CUBO+-+winning+entry+of+RICS+Cities+for+our+Future+%28courtyard%29.jpg/9bbbc59c-e457-40b8-9f06-1de9e4ad24cf?t=1543547761633" /> <img alt="Common area" src="/documents/10204/0/CUBO+-+winning+entry+of+RICS+Cities+for+our+Future+%28common+area%29.jpg/bf95adae-097f-4478-9628-9105c5b13c0a?t=1543547810400" /> <img alt="Laundry area" src="/documents/10204/0/CUBO+-+winning+entry+of+RICS+Cities+for+our+Future+%28laundry%29.jpg/c49a0864-1ecb-4d69-bf2f-a05400ae360a?t=1543547867365" /> <img alt="X-ray render of a single CUBO unit" src="/documents/10204/0/CUBO+single+unit+colored+xray+render.jpg/167ac613-f0d7-4f4a-80c4-ab014da76213?t=1543548510892" />

This cheap, modular bamboo home could fix Manila’s housing woes

<img alt="Is your house scaring off buyers? Mimadeo/Shutterstock" src="/documents/10204/0/shutterstock_794084761-compressor.jpg/68d20aad-1d38-42b1-b4ef-7ba1a7abedf3?t=1540988957869" style="width: 1000px; height: 667px;" />It is one thing to see them in movies, another to actually live in them. Stigmatised properties are some of the most fascinating, albeit terrifying, types of real estate you’ll ever come across. These are usually homes with a track record of sinister events tainting its reputation indefinitely, be it your garden-variety murder, a history of cult-like residents, or so much as loan shark vandalism. According to the 2018 Haunted Real Estate Report by Realtor.com, nothing on earth would make 49 percent of people buy a haunted home.  So how do you pass on a nightmare house to braver souls who can spend night after night in it? Read on. <h4>1. A night to dismember</h4> While some countries and US states legally bind you to tell buyers that something wicked your way came, sometimes you don’t have to let those skeletons out of the closet. Singapore, for instance, does not have stigma laws that require you to disclose weird trivia about your house. This may soon change, however, as more consumers demand disclosure laws that add a little thought, if not a bit more fear factor, to their buying decisions. A Singaporean woman who had more than her fair share of unearthly goings-on in her Little India apartment should know. “What they don’t know won’t kill them, but buying a home is a very big financial decision and I think buyers would appreciate having all the information,” she told <a href="https://www.propertyguru.com.sg/property-management-news/2016/10/138610/someone-died-in-this-house-any-takers" target="_blank">PropertyGuru</a> anonymously. <h4>2. Are you afraid of the dark?</h4> Thought you heard eerie moans? Must be your pipes in need of fixing. Did your door just slam shut by itself? Maybe it’s the hinges. Flickering lights? It’s your bulb, bub. Investigate and exhaust all possible explanations to debunk supposed ghostly happenings in your house. Once you find them, it’s only a matter of calling the plumber, repairman, or carpenter. <h4>3. Agent provocat-horror</h4> Sometimes you can’t sweet-talk your way into selling a haunted residence, especially one extensively covered by media. Marketing a stigmatised property is a matter that may be entirely out of your hands; a property agent is in order. “It involves a considerable amount of time and effort to market and eventually close the deal,” said Marcus Sim, an agent with PropNex Realty. <h4>4. Hack down…those prices</h4> Only 18 percent of home buyers would buy a property at full price if they knew it to be haunted, according to the Realtor.com report. With a stigmatised home, Sim would explain to clients that such units need a significant markdown, a trade-off to assuage buyers’ apprehensions. “[Negative] events don’t usually affect just one unit, but rather an entire cluster of surrounding units. And in most cases, sellers that are affected will have more room for negotiation in order to offload these properties,” he said. <a href="http://property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/the-battle-to-preserve-asia-s-urban-herit-13" target="_blank">More: The battle to preserve Asia’s urban heritage</a> <h4>5. Sweeten the (witch’s) pot</h4> A third of respondents on Realtor.com's National Haunted House Survey said they would willingly buy a haunted home not only if meant a lower price but also if it had a large kitchen and was situated in a good neighbourhood, suggesting that the age-old rule of “location, location, location” also applies to haunted houses. Play up these enticements enough, and you may have a courageous buyer in your hands. <h4>6. Give them the horror story of their dreams</h4> <img alt="The LaLaurie Mansion in New Orleans is one of the most haunted houses in America. Reading Tom/Wikimedia Commons" src="/documents/10204/0/The_LaLaurie_Mansion-compressor.jpg/3fd790ee-8cb5-4bdb-b761-0902c6f58196?t=1540989208208" /> Maybe you’re pitching your house to the wrong prospects. There are buyers who not only tolerate haunted homes; they go out on a limb looking for them. In 2007, Nicolas Cage bought the notorious New Orleans home of Madame Delphine LaLaurie, the sadistic socialite who murdered and subjected slaves to unspeakable tortures. The Oscar-winning actor knew fully well what he was getting into. "You know, other people have beachfront property; I have ghost front property. That's what I always say. I have not experienced anything, but I like a bit of mystery, and the house has such a mystery to it. Some of the stories about it are pretty horrific," Cage said. "One of the greatest memories would be the haunted mansion at [Disneyland] Anaheim, in New Orleans Square, no less. So for me to have the actual thing was the childhood fantasy come true." <h4>7. Reclaim the spooky narrative</h4> Knowing that such home buyers are out there, might as well embrace your unit’s bad reputation. A simple lookup of local paranormal groups online may just point you to seekers of spiritually infested dwellings.   Anne Ewasko, a specialist with Rubloff Residential Properties in Chicago, was <a href="https://www.hgtv.com/design/real-estate/how-to-sell-a-haunted-house" target="_blank">able to sell</a> last year the supposedly haunted 19th-century Goldblatt Mansion for USD2.46 million. Her trick and treat? Holding open houses and broker parties as well as putting a light spin on the topic whenever it is raised. <h4>8. Rest in peace</h4> Ghostbusters exist IRL — only without the bulky plasma guns and proton packs. If simple sage-burning doesn’t cut it, it may be time to bring in the big guns. Mediums, psychics, exorcists, or your local spiritual leader may be in good position to vanquish clingy energies from your home. Whether or not you believe in limbo everlasting, the good vibes allegedly produced by such activities affords peace of mind for you and your future buyer.

How to sell your haunted house

These are the most expensive cities in Asia for residential property

<img alt="Hong Kong as seen from the peak at sunrise. Patrick Foto/Shutterstock" src="/documents/10204/0/shutterstock_1033475272-compressor.jpg/d159e0bf-e4e1-4409-89c7-6ce53284fe24?t=1544516878162" style="width: 1000px; height: 667px;" />Hong Kong over the past year has registered the highest sales in the world for ultra-prime homes or those worth at least USD25 million, according to a new report by Knight Frank. In the 12 months to August, the Chinese SAR racked up a world-leading 47 transactions in the ultra-prime segment with a total value of USD2.5 billion, followed by New York with 39 transactions (USD1.5 billion) and London with 38 (USD1.5 billion). “With attractive education options, low taxation and an established and strong legal system, as well as a relatively stable political environment – the city offers an attractive environment for wealthy individuals,” Knight Frank analysts wrote. Although severely unaffordable for many locals, residential property in Hong Kong has been a lucrative investment due to the absence of capital gains taxes and inheritance taxes. <a href="http://property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/here-s-what-the-world-s-most-expensive-home-looks-li-5" target="_blank">More: Here’s what the world’s most expensive home looks like</a> Most properties that have transacted above USD25 million are in The Peak or Island South. Over a three-year period ending August, London and Hong Kong both rank top globally with the average annual value of ultra-prime transactions totalling USD2.1 billion in each city.  The average transaction value in Hong Kong stood at USD52.8 million in the year to August—a global best. Singapore ranks second in this measure at USD44.1 million, followed by Sydney with USD43.8 million. “Singapore is undoubtedly an ultra-prime market – although it sees the smallest number of transaction numbers compared to our other city markets,” Knight Frank noted in its report. Cooling measures have tempered ultra-prime sales in the city-state since the financial crisis, analysts added. The ASEAN city recorded only two transactions valued at more than USD25 million in 2016, but it has since recovered with five in 2017 and 11 in the first eight months of 2018.

Hong Kong is top ultra-prime residential market of the year

5 best Southeast Asian cities for LGBT property seekers

5. Ho Chi Minh City

4. Phnom Penh

3. Manila

2. Phuket

1. Bangkok

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