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Impact of troubled US market on Asia is small: researcher

The US credit crunch has had a limited impact on the commercial property market in Asia, where multinational investors continue to be upbeat about the market's growth momentum, a Chicago-based real-estate expert said at a Taipei press conference yesterday.

"Unhurt by the US housing slump, most commercial property markets in the Asia-Pacific region are still active," Colin Dyer, president and chief executive officer of Jones Lang LaSalle, one of the world's top real estate and money management firms.

Asian economies, which have seen little spillover from the US and European slowdowns, continued to see steady growth because the region's industrial markets were bolstered by infrastructure demand and robust retail growth boosted consumer confidence, he said.

The region's commercial buildings have seen strong increases in office rentals in the past year, with those in Singapore seeing the biggest jump -- 104.4 percent -- Dyer said.

Office buildings in Calcutta, India, saw the second highest increase in rentals -- 80 percent.

Brisbane, Australia, saw a 76.8 percent increase in rentals of commercial space.

Dyer said a sizable capital injection would soon give the region's property market an additional boost.

In Taipei, rentals of commercial space saw 8 percent year-on-year growth, driven mainly by top-tier buildings in Xinyi District (信義).

Dyer predicted that rentals of commercial space in Taipei would continue to increase following strong growth in the third quarter.

Taipei buildings would play a leading role in boosting future property rentals, he said.

Jones Lang LaSalle said multinational investors had put a total of US$385 billion into investment in the world's property market in the first half of the year, including US$54 billion pumped into the Asia-Pacific region.
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