Following the success of Cityscape Dubai, the region’s premier international property investment and development event, the Institute for International Research (IIR), the organiser of Cityscape, is launching two new Cityscape brands in Singapore and Shanghai to capitalise on the major growth potential of South East Asia and China.
Franck Dailles, International Director, Cityscape, commented, “Cityscape Dubai has enjoyed phenomenal success over the last four years and our strategy is to export the brand globally. Singapore and Shanghai are the gateways to two of the largest investment and development markets in the world and logical destinations to launch Cityscape Asia and Cityscape China respectively.”
In Singapore, ‘Cityscape Asia’ is due to be inaugurated at the Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre 10-12 April 2007. The three-day event will highlight regional investment opportunities, iconic architecture and development best practice to global investors through a world-class conference and up to 6,000 square metres of exhibition space.
Singapore also has the financial muscle to make it an attractive portal for investors looking for access to the region. With a structured, stable and transparent financial environment combined with local and regional expertise, it is estimated that there is in excess of US$ 16 billion in available capital.
Investors will have access to a market consisting of 2.8 billion consumers, with 291 major projects either on the drawing-board or underway throughout a region that includes Singapore, Malaysia, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan and the Asia Pacific Rim.
Neil Hickman, Exhibition Director, Cityscape Asia & China, said “Public and private commercial property developments are currently growing at over ten per cent annually and exhibitors at ‘Cityscape Asia’ will have a rare opportunity to network with major investors, developers and governmental authorities involved in the development, design and construction of these projects.”
Theresa Gan, Project Director, IIR Exhibitions Ltd, claimed, “Singapore has long been admired as a beacon for best practice in urban planning, green architecture and environmental planning, resulting in high quality urban living within a thriving business community. It is considered a role-model by many regional and international planners and is the only location in the region that represents the true vision of Cityscape Asia.”
Shanghai is the chosen destination for ‘Cityscape China’ with a projected launch date of 24-26 May 2007 at the Shanghai International Exhibition Centre. It will follow the same format as Singapore with similar investor and exhibitor profiles, 6,000 square metres of exhibition space and an international conference featuring leading industry experts from around the world. However, the main difference will be the pace and sheer size of the market.
Shanghai boasts some of the world’s tallest buildings amongst an urban spread accommodating over 16 million inhabitants. It is recognised as the commercial and financial heartbeat of China and the obvious venue for ‘Cityscape China’.
“It has the highest GDP of any Chinese city, is currently the focus of the world’s development industry and its rapid expansion and rate of investment makes Shanghai one of the fastest growing cities on earth,” added Hickman.
China, set to become the world’s largest economy by 2020 and sometimes referred to as the ‘World’s Factory’, is the most populous nation on earth with 1.3 billion people living on the mainland alone. China has managed to slow its birth rate by an estimated 400 million with the introduction in the late 1980s of the single birth policy.
However, China will face another upsurge of population growth in the coming five years as the first single-child generation is about to enter reproductive age. To accommodate this population growth, China will need to build more than 750 new cities over the next 15 years, or put another way, five billion square metres of residential real estate needs to be built every year for the next two decades.
“China is currently experiencing over twenty per cent real estate growth per annum. There are 2,520 projects either at the planning stage or in progress including, waterfront developments, industrial free zones, ‘techno’ cities and tourism projects on a monumental scale unique anywhere in the world,“ Hickman concluded.
