Also, its new Singapore Central Private Real Estate Fund is set to be the largest Singapore private real estate fund with over $8 billion of assets under management.
The fund is said to focus on managing commercial properties in Singapore. Some have criticised the property group, saying it should not have chosen the private market route. Instead, Hongkong Land should have listed a REIT in Singapore.
But the private route — which includes funds, clubs, joint ventures and partnerships — offers investors another opportunity to develop, package and exit real estate holdings, says Gordon Marsden, head of capital markets, Asia Pacific, Cushman & Wakefield.
Overall, that is a positive for the market, he adds.
See also: Chinese hospitality is the ‘best asset class’ in real estate right now: John Lim
Marsden of Cushman & Wakefield (right), alongside UOB's Jasper Wong on a Jan 22 panel
Marsden does not believe this takes away from the strength of the region’s REIT market. Speaking on a panel at the BCA-REDAS Built Environment And Real Estate Prospects Seminar 2026 on Jan 22, Marsden says the REIT market is growing across the Asia Pacific, beyond the typical centres of Japan and Singapore.
See also: CapitaLand Commercial C-REIT debuts on Shanghai Stock Exchange
Two REITs were listed in Singapore last year: the data centre-focused NTT DC REIT by Japan’s NTT Group, and Centurion Accommodation REIT by Centurion Corporation, which holds a portfolio of purpose-built workers’ accommodation and purpose-built student accommodation.
The Singapore market may have expanded into “new asset classes”, says Marsden, but other markets are still at “very early stages of development”.
China’s REIT market is rapidly growing, notes Marsden. Since the regime launched in 2021, there are now 77 C-REITs. CapitaLand Commercial C-REIT listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange with two retail assets in September 2025 as CapitaLand Investment’s eighth listed fund.
India, too, only launched its REIT market in 2019. “It is all just helping in terms of giving confidence to investors that there is another way of potentially and ultimately exiting their real estate into platforms that are going to hold that real estate for the long term,” adds Marsden. “That then reduces the risks associated with participation.”
Photo: BCA-REDAS
