In the international investment community, property was a tainted word not very long ago, thanks to the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States which triggered the global financial crisis.
Last year, the property market was red hot, especially in Asia. Too hot, some governments felt. But there's still demand in the region's markets.
Piers Brunner, Asia CEO of Colliers International, believes the factors that strongly supported the market last year - tight demand, low interest rates, liquidity and the availability of financing - are unlikely to be challenged this year.
'The only real threat is if one of these variables starts changing. The obvious one that would affect the market almost immediately would be interest rates, but it doesn't look like those are going to change in the next 12 months,' he says. 'There is a lot of money being printed around the world. There is a whole lot of money in the system, and most of that, when it is looking for returns, seems to look to Asia. Property gets a fair share of that.'
A report by UBS says: 'In a low interest rate, low-growth environment, where investors are searching for yield and hard assets, real estate should continue to provide an attractive investment'.
However, UBS cautions that there may be policy announcements in Asia to 'slow residential price recovery'. It also says that other risks to the global real estate market include: a higher than expected increase in interest rates, asset allocation away from real estate towards higher growth sectors, such as equities, and a possibility of another economic downturn.