Singapore is strengthening its position as a capital formation hub for real estate investors as public and private markets become increasingly intertwined, with executives from the Singapore Exchange, BlackRock, JD Property and Pro-invest Group citing the city-state’s liquidity, institutional depth and regulatory stability as key advantages.
The speakers offered their views at Mingtiandi’s fifth annual forum in the Lion City, where commercial real estate investment posted a record-high quarter in Q1 with $7.9 billion in transaction volume — overtaking Tokyo as Asia Pacific’s most active metro for the first time since 2021, according to MSCI.
Ronald Tan, senior vice president for capital markets, global sales and origination at the Singapore Exchange, said the city-state’s listed property market is increasingly benefiting from interaction with private capital rather than competing against it.
“I see the synergy and integration as very key to what makes this market work,” Tan said at the Yardi-sponsored event.
Full Cycle Ecosystem
The SGX executive highlighted how Singapore REITs have raised S$2.7 billion ($2.1 billion) in fresh equity this year while announcing S$6 billion in acquisitions, with the city’s listed developers also rallying sharply following the central bank’s equity market development programme.
BlackRock’s Andrew Lee speaks during the panel on Singapore as a global capital hub (Image: Mingtiandi)
“The more private equity acquire, the more our public REITs can acquire at the same valuation,” Tan said.
The capital markets veteran pointed to CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust’s acquisition of Paragon mall and sale of Asia Square Tower 2 to IOI Properties as exemplifying increased fluidity between public and private markets. He cited Hongkong Land’s new Singapore private fund, seeded with listed assets, as further evidence of the trend.
Andrew Lee, head of investments for Singapore, Southeast Asia and South Korea at BlackRock, said Singapore now offers an ecosystem spanning fund formation, financing and public market exits, making the city especially attractive for value-add investment strategies.
“What Singapore offers today is full cycle,” Lee told the audience of more than 270 senior industry leaders at the forum.
The world’s biggest asset manager is finding some of its strongest buying opportunities in Singapore in more than a decade, particularly for repositioning and operationally intensive assets where fewer investors are willing to commit capital.
Lee cited BlackRock’s repositioning of Citadines Raffles Place into an Oakwood Premier-branded hotel as an example of the strategy, with the asset converted from serviced apartment use to capture stronger demand from short-stay business travellers in Singapore’s financial district.
Fundraising Base
Gretchen Yuan, chief operating officer and global head of fundraising at JD Property, said Singapore’s concentration of sovereign wealth funds, pensions and family offices has made the city a critical fundraising base for the Chinese logistics specialist.
She noted that investors increasingly prefer flexible structures and targeted exposure over traditional blind-pool vehicles, with sovereign investors demanding greater control and operational alignment.
“LPs nowadays want that operational edge,” Yuan said.
Sabine Schaffer, co-founder and managing partner at Pro-invest Group, said Singapore has evolved from a mere financial conduit into a regional command hub where investment strategies and partnerships are increasingly formed.
“What used to be, to be fair, just a booking centre, today is becoming effectively the forefront of decision-making when it comes to investment decisions,” Schaffer said.
The Pro-invest executive said Singapore’s stable regulatory environment and long-term planning framework have strengthened the city’s role as an allocation hub for capital targeting high-growth regional markets including Australia and Japan.
“We see a kind of fascinating symbiotic relationship almost between Singapore and some of the other markets that are providing a lot of growth as well,” she said.