Find out what’s makes Asia’s leading real estate summit different and why it attracts the real estate elite to attend.

1. SINGAPORE 22-23 APRIL
S t . R e g i s S i n g a p o r e
ASIA
GRI2015
The 5th Annual
INTERVIEW WITH MONICA ZHANG
Monica Zhang • Director for Asia
+44 (0)207 121 5089 | monica.zhang@globalrealestate.org
GRI – Global Real Estate Institute
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2. Asia GRI 2015 • Interview with Monica Zhang
www.globalrealestate.org/Asia2015
J o i n t h e m o s t s e n i o r g a t h e r i n g o f r e a l e s t a t e l e a d e r s a t A s i a G R I
Q A&
Monica Zhang
Director for Asia
GRI – Global Real
Estate Institute
1. What’s Asia GRI?
Asia GRI is the continent’s most senior real estate
investment meeting. It’s is a day and a half of
relaxed and intimate networking between real
estate investors, developers, lenders from across
Asia. It’s a key opportunity for Asian investors to
identify global investment opportunities, and for
global investors to seek out local partners. There
are discussions on hotels, offices, retail, logistics,
resi, debt markets, core, value-add, opportunity,
distressed and many other key topics.
2. What motivated the creation of a GRI
meeting in Asia?
We’ve been in Asia for nearly a decade but there
are two interesting angles at play right now.
Firstly, Asian capital overseas is hitting new
heights and we are in a privileged position that
we can introduce global product to local
investors. Secondly, the squeeze on core Asian
markets is driving investors towards the
emerging economies – and this trend creates the
need for investors to find product and partners
in very diverse and often complicated markets.
The Asia GRI embraces that diversity and brings
together what might otherwise be disparate
investors and product providers. This creates a
unique marketplace, especially for yield hunters
but also for the institutional players.
3. How is Asia GRI different from other Asian
real estate investment events?
Most importantly; seniority. But also the way in
which our participants engage with each other.
It’s fundamentally different to other conferences.
In fact, GRI is not a conference at all. Our unique
format does not have speakers or panels. Instead,
those taking part in the event can participate in
many small discussion groups, animated by a
‘Moderating Chair’ and a selection of ‘Co-chairs’.
The informality and enjoyment of the debates is
like an after-dinner conversation with friends in
your own home. This allows you to quickly find
out what other people are thinking and identify
those 4-5 new potential business partners or
investment opportunities.
4. What are the highlights of this edition?
We have introduced the new opportunity for
developers to pitch their projects to investors,
which should be interesting. Aside from this,
2015 event has been split into three distinct
sections; Emerging Asian Markets, Core Asia
Markets, and Global Investment Destinations.
5. What attendance do you expect for this
edition?
As typical of GRI meetings across the world, there
will be a ‘magic’ combination of exclusivity and
seniority; a maximum of 150 people and all
senior decision makers. The attendance is made
of balanced mix of investors, developers and
lenders, as well as some major hotel groups,
retailers and corporate tenants. Of course we
welcome some leading service providers as well.
6. What are the most represented countries
among the participants?
We have some major Canadian, USA and Russian
investors but in order of quantity of participants;
China and Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Japan,
Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia, Vietnam,
USA, UK and then Canada. The significant Russian
interest in probably the biggest surprise, but
perhaps shouldn’t be considering the increase in
deal flow between China and Russia.
7. What are the major trends in the
development and property investment market
in Asia?
The strength of the Japanese office market is
resounding and China’s industrial and logistics
sectors are flourishing. Australia is also a darling
of investors, despite the fairly thin supply of
product. In the emerging economies, a concern
to many investors is a perceived lack of reliable
data, instability of local currencies, and lack of
institutional-scale portfolio buying
opportunities. The data issue is certainly on the
mend, aided in part by relatively stable
governments across the region. In terms of
currency fluctuations; unfortunately that won’t
go away any time soon, but what is exciting
investors is the number of new, large scale
projects in the pipeline; many of which will be of
institutional grade.