Cityscape Asia Shows Benefits Of Networking In A Downturn

With the three day Cityscape Asia property exhibition and conference drawing to a close in Singapore today, delegates attending the conference have passed their verdict on a range of issues affecting the property industry.

This year’s Cityscape Asia attracted more than 3,000 participants, 150 conference delegates and 40 exhibitors from across the region and globe. Conference delegates used innovative voting technology to collectively share their views on leading questions from ‘Who’s to blame for the current crisis?’ to ‘Which is the most promising sector in the Vietnam property market?’
 
82% of the delegates polled assigned the blame for the current crisis on voracious bankers and investors, while Governments were held to account by 13%, followed by developers (3%) and overly optimistic home-owners (2%).

60% of delegates believed that, in Asia, the commercial office sector would be the worst hit by the economic downturn, followed by 28% for the residential strata market, and 9% for commercial retail. Delegates saw landed residential as likely to get off lightly, with just 3% of delegates seeing it as the most affected sector.
 
On the promising Vietnam market, 41% of delegates said ‘legal uncertainty and red tape’ was the key challenge facing the market, closely followed by 34% nominating ‘poor infrastructure’.

38% of delegates felt that residential apartments had the best prospects for investment in Vietnam, followed by retail/office facilities with 25%, City Hotels 18% and coastal resorts 13%.

Cityscape Group Exhibitions Director Graham Wood said exhibitors and delegates were enthusiastic about the quality and seniority of attendees at Cityscape Asia in 2009.

“The presence of a high-proportion of serious investors and senior players in the industry, with many rich interactions at the exhibition stalls, conference sessions and investor roundtables shows the industry’s strong need to network at this challenging time,” Mr Wood said.
 
Greg Hanna, a delegate and investor from South Africa found Cityscape Asia 2009 ‘exciting’.
 
“We achieved our objective to network with high-level foreign investors, and the conference presentations were also of really high quality,” Mr Hanna said.

First time exhibitors at the conference such as Ridge Solutions/RS Capital headquartered in Angola, which hosted a cocktail function for over 250 guests on Wednesday night, and Urban Development and Construction Co. from Vietnam also met their objectives.
 
Brij Allen Mahajan – Director of Operations, Middle East, Ridge Solutions which markets a range of residential, office, hotel, retail and other developments in the rapidly developing Angolan market commented; “It has definitely created more opportunities for us as a developer.”
 
Vo Thanh Phong – Permanent Secretary of the Urban Development and Construction Co., Vietnam said the company had established close relationships with some potential partners at its first ever Cityscape event.

“I think this year’s exhibition has been highly successful, and we will definitely be coming again next year,” he said.
 
For Tero Borvornpotsakul an apartment developer from Phuket the various networking sessions and interactive discussion forums were most helpful. “They’ve helped me learn more about the opportunities in the real estate sector. The organisers have done an excellent job.”
 

Samantha Soo, a member of the strong Malaysian contingent visiting Cityscape concurred.
 
"We have been attending Cityscape Asia since it started. One of our objectives in attending this event is to raise awareness of our company and projects among international investors. This year's event has helped build our brand with this key target group,” said Ms Soo of Mah Sing Properties Sdn Bhd, Malaysia.
 
Next year’s Cityscape Asia will take place in Singapore on 18-20 May 2010.
 
Cityscape Asia
Cityscape Asia is an annual exhibition and conference focusing on all aspects of the real estate development cycle. The three day event ran from 19 – 21 May 2009 at the Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre (Suntec Singapore).

Top deal-makers from leading developers, banks, institutional investors and investment authorities, as well as senior officers from foremost private equity funds and investment advisory firms gathered at Cityscape Asia to discuss key issues and Investment opportunities.
 
Conference highlights included: surviving the global financial crisis; the future for real estate funds; Asian REITS; markets to invest in for long-term growth and returns; country spotlights in troubled times; the Asian retail decade; and green investments.

Cityscape Asia is an extension of the phenomenally successful Cityscape Dubai exhibition, organised by IIR Middle East, which also include Abu Dhabi, India, Saudi Arabia, Russia, USA and Latin America.
 
UK-based Scala Land Group is a Gold Sponsor at Cityscape Asia. Scala Land Group presents overseas investors with alternative opportunities to buy land in the UK.  CNN is the international broadcast partner.

For more information about Cityscape Asia 2009 and related events, please visit:  www.cityscapeasia.com

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