Mumbai and New Delhi rank among the top 10 most preferred markets for cross-border investment in the APAC region. Mumbai ranked 5th after Tokyo, Sydney, Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City, while New Delhi was tied for the 8th spot along Seoul, Osaka and Hanoi, as per the CBRE findings highlighting the improvement in net buying intention across markets in Asia Pacific, with over half of respondents indicating their preference to buy more real estate in 2025.
In India, the total net buying intentions reached 3%, with developer/owner/operator, real estate fund, and institutional investors displayed the strongest buying intentions. The survey further pointed out that investor sentiment in India is driven by asset classes, including office, residential, industrial & data centres.
India recorded robust foreign equity investment inflows in 2024 full year, with countries like Singapore, the United States, and Canada dominating the foreign equity investments. These three countries cumulatively contributed more than 25% of the total equity investments in the country’s real estate in 2024. Singapore accounted for nearly 36% share of the total foreign equity investments, followed by the United States (29%) and Canada (22%). Investments from the UAE also witnessed a significant uptick throughout 2024 compared to 2023. Total equity investment in Indian real estate recorded an all-time high of US$11.4 bn in 2024, increased by 54% year-on-year.
Investors who are investing in Delhi and Mumbai are more inclined to look at value-added and opportunistic strategies which involve a higher risk/return profile than core and core-plus strategies. Those chasing value-add strategies in India will potentially explore core office products in tier-1 cities such as Mumbai and Delhi, while those looking at more development plays across these markets, with some examples including the acquisition of land sites for either residential (build-to-sell) development or data centre development.
The survey also shows that Environmental, Social, & Governance (ESG) initiatives remain the key focus for investors looking at new investments in India, with 56% keen on acquiring or developing green buildings and 46% of them looking at retrofit existing assets. Besides, assets with on-site renewable energy (44%) or those that are installed with on-site EV chargers (34%) were also preferred by the investors.
In the APAC region, Tokyo is the top target for cross-border real estate investment in Asia Pacific for the sixth consecutive year, with Osaka gaining popularity due to low debt costs, stable pricing, and diverse opportunities in Japan. Sydney and Singapore are top investment destinations, closely following Tokyo. Investors are attracted to Sydney because of the higher returns they can get there, while Singapore offers a stable and reliable market. Overall, investment sentiment in Asia Pacific has improved, with net buying intention rising from 5% in 2024 to 13% in 2025. Key drivers of this increase include falling debt costs and asset repricing. For example, Singaporean and Hong Kong SAR investors with cross-regional mandates have expressed net buying intentions across the board. Large Australian and Korean landlords have also demonstrated the most significant increase in their net buying intentions, driven by attractive pricing opportunities in their domestic markets.
“Even though expectations for significant rate cuts have tempered due to persistent inflation, we still expect investment activity to accelerate in 2025 as they start to take effect across the region,” said, Greg Hyland, Head of Capital Markets, Asia Pacific, CBRE. “REITs, institutional investors, and funds are driving this momentum, with many focusing on core-plus and value-add opportunities to achieve higher returns. In some cases, this could be acquiring core assets that have undergone repricing.”
Industrial properties remain the most sought-after asset class for investors in Asia Pacific, particularly among core investors. Meanwhile, office and data centre assets are seeing increased interest in 2025, with investors targeting core-plus and value-add properties in the office sector and opportunistic pricing for data centres, particularly in Southeast Asia.
