Germany enters ranks of 'very transparent' markets for first time
Transparency and research remain the key elements for institutional investors allocating resources to real estate markets, with 75% of all global property investment being made in the top 10 most transparent countries, the latest research confirms.
Europe dominates a ranking of the world’s most transparent real estate markets with six of the top 10 found in the region, according to JLL and LaSalle Investment Management’s 2016 Global Real Estate Transparency Index, the ninth time the Index has been published.
Of the 109 global real estate markets analysed, two-thirds have shown progress in levels of transparency over the past two years.
The UK is the most transparent market in the world, and is joined by France (5th), The Netherlands (7th), Ireland (8th), Germany (9th) and Finland (10th) in the 'Highly Transparent' category.
France consolidates its position among the top group with advances in its regulatory and legal environment, while Germany joins the ‘Highly Transparent’ group for the first time, moving up three places from 2014 - owing primarily to improvements in its listed sector, but better on all criteria than it was in the previous year.
Germany's listed sector saw its market capitalisation almost doubling since 2014, with its largest company Vonovia entering the DAX 30 index. The proptech sector, including companies in the property management, crowdsourcing and data delivery sectors, was also singled out for praise.
Just outside the top 10, Poland (13th) is one of Europe’s standout markets, jumping four places from 2014 and moving in step with core western countries.
"The world is more transparent than it has ever been, and standards continue to improve, but at the same time, the gap between the most and the least transparent markets is widening," said Jeremy Kelly, director of global research programmes at JLL.
"Highly Transparent markets account for 75% of investment into commercial real estate globally, highlighting the extent to which transparency drives real estate decisions. As capital allocations to the asset class grow and transparency moves to the forefront of the international political agenda, investors are demanding further improvements in transparency on a par with other asset classes," he added. This is likely to lead to a new category – "Hyper-Transparent" - over the coming years, in recognition of the key role being played by digitalisation in the industry.
Global Real Estate Transparency Index 2016 – Top 10
1. United Kingdom
2. Australia
3. Canada
4. United States
5. France
6. New Zealand
7. Netherlands
8. Ireland
9. Germany
10. Finland