At the Real Estate Investment World 2005 from 27 June 29 June at the Grand Hyatt Singapore the Asian Public Real Estate Association (APREA) exhibited its offerings for the first time.
The APREA is the first pan-Asian association to promote, represent, and develop the publicly traded real estate sector in the Asia Pacific. APREA, based in Singapore, aims to facilitate investment within the region for real estate investors, and is committed to promoting common standards in accounting, reporting and corporate governance to enhance investor confidence and growth in the industry. APREA joins EPRA and NAREIT to represent Asia at a global level.
APREA kicks off with the support of an outstanding group of committed founding members including Westfield Group, Hong Kong Land, Ascendas REIT, Mitsubishi Corp-UBS Realty, SM Prime, Ayala Land, YTL Corporation Berhad, ARA Asset Managers, Henderson Global Investors, UBS, Morgan Stanley, and Macquarie Bank.
"The Asia Pacific property market is one of the fastest growing sectors in the region. To support the dynamism of the industry, APREA's focus will be to create a market based on international best-practice that will facilitate local, regional and international investment in the sector," says Lachlan Gyde, Executive Officer of APREA.
APREA has also obtained considerable backing and financial support from leading organisations. "We're extremely pleased with all the support and direction our sponsors and founding members have provided APREA. We are definitely looking forward to building upon these relationships going forward" says Chris Reilly, Interim President, APREA.
Additionally, APREA has also been offered full support and endorsement from the European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA) in Europe, National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) and Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE) in USA.
"It is my belief that there is a strong need in Asia for a similar trade organization as EPRA, enabling to unite the sector and to carry out important work for improvements. EPRA is ready to support the Asian initiative and to push the sector forward on a regional basis but with a global perspective," says Nick J.M. van Ommen, CEO, EPRA.
"NAREIT is ready, willing and able to support APREA, however it may be deemed appropriate by local interests. We look forward to joining forces with EPRA and APREA to achieve important objectives worldwide," says Steven A. Wechsler, President & Chief Executive Officer, NAREIT.
At present the listed real estate sector in Asia is very fragmented and is poorly represented as far as global investors are concerned. The lack of unity, and cross border differences can make investing in Asian real estate a riskier prospect than in Europe or the United States. Both Europe and the US have powerful, well-recognised organisations in the form of EPRA and NAREIT representing the listed real estate sector, and both of these have had significant success in driving forward the interests of their members and raising the credibility of the sector among investors.
APREA is modelled on sister organisations EPRA and NAREIT. A central objective is to raise the profile of the Asia Pacific property companies and trusts for global investors. Globally, there is a lot of capital available for real estate investment and APREA will ensure Asia gets its fair share.
APREA will also represent and lobby on behalf of the listed property sector in Asia in a unified way, and through a more integrated market, will seek to improve information flow and the quality of information and research. There will be significant benefits to participating companies and to the industry overall through increased capital flow.
The formation of APREA is not intended to replace the role of the individual real estate and investment associations within each country; instead, APREA will serve the international need for global representation emanating from a rapidly expanding cross border listed property environment.
"APREA member
