https://www.scmp.com/rss/318746/feed Daily analysis of the major talking points in the worlds of business and investing with a focus on implications for doing both in mainland China and its key financing hub - Hong Kong. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Earlier this year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang likened artificial intelligence (AI) to “a five-layer cake”. At the top are applications, such as chatbots. The layer below is the software, which includes language models. Further down are infrastructure and memory chips. The bottom layer is the most important. “At the foundation is energy,” Huang said, noting that “energy is the first principle of AI infrastructure and the binding constraint on how much intelligence the system can produce”. Driving... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3352325/energy-crisis-showcases-strengths-chinas-data-centre-market?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3352325/energy-crisis-showcases-strengths-chinas-data-centre-market?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 May 2026 08:30:07 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Every quarter, Knight Frank publishes a report on luxury residential transactions – sales of homes worth US$10 million or more – in 12 leading markets around the world. In the final quarter of last year, Hong Kong was the second most actively traded market after Dubai, recording 81 deals with a total value of US$1.5 billion. For 2025 as a whole, Hong Kong was the fourth most widely traded market, ahead of London, which topped the ranking in 2022. Hong Kong’s strong performance is mostly... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3351520/asian-private-wealth-emerging-force-property-investment?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3351520/asian-private-wealth-emerging-force-property-investment?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Apr 2026 08:30:09 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Hong Kong’s real estate market has come a long way in the past year. For a sign of the extent to which its outlook has improved, look no further than the rapid shift in expectations for the growth in house prices this year. As recently as January, Morgan Stanley characterised its prediction of a 10 per cent rise in secondary home values as a non-consensus call. Fast forward to today, and its forecast is in line with those of most other industry experts. The outlook for the city’s office market... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3350677/why-hong-kong-property-recovery-sceptics-miss-bigger-picture?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3350677/why-hong-kong-property-recovery-sceptics-miss-bigger-picture?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Apr 2026 08:30:08 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Singapore is at the sharp end of the energy crisis. Imported natural gas accounts for an estimated 95 per cent of the city state’s electricity generation. According to Nomura, Singapore is the fourth most vulnerable Asian economy to the energy shock emanating from the war in Iran, based on a set of criteria that includes the share of fossil fuels in energy consumption and the proportion of energy imports from the Gulf. Last month, Singapore’s Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said the... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3349845/why-singapores-property-slowdown-envy-rest-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3349845/why-singapores-property-slowdown-envy-rest-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Apr 2026 08:30:08 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan does not mince his words. In an interview with Reuters on March 23, he said Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz was, “in a sense, an Asian crisis”. Many industry experts agree with him. Before the war in Iran erupted, China, India, Japan and South Korea accounted for 75 per cent of oil and 59 per cent of liquefied natural gas (LNG) flows through the strait. In a report on March 6, Nomura said Asia was the “epicentre of the energy... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3349119/why-asias-data-centres-are-insulated-iran-energy-shock?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3349119/why-asias-data-centres-are-insulated-iran-energy-shock?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Apr 2026 08:30:07 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Spare a thought for investors seeking shelter from the energy shock caused by the war in Iran. There are no sanctuaries. Government bonds, a traditional beneficiary of a flight to safety, have fallen in response to fears central banks will be forced to raise interest rates to combat a surge in inflation. Even gold, long viewed as a refuge in times of geopolitical uncertainty, has fallen about 15 per cent this month following a blistering rally. The safe haven credentials of Dubai have taken a... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3348353/japans-property-market-well-placed-withstand-iran-war-energy-shock?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3348353/japans-property-market-well-placed-withstand-iran-war-energy-shock?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 30 Mar 2026 08:30:10 +0000 Winston Mok Winston Mok US President Donald Trump has initiated an international trade war in which American consumers and businesses are bearing most of the immediate costs, and now he has started a war on global energy where people worldwide are paying the price. While Iran is no match for US military might, Tehran has turned its control of the Strait of Hormuz – through which 20 per cent of the world’s crude oil flows – to its advantage. Nations in conflict with the United States do not need to fight back tariff for... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3347460/trumps-energy-war-over-iran-failing-just-his-china-trade-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3347460/trumps-energy-war-over-iran-failing-just-his-china-trade-war?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Mar 2026 08:30:08 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro As the war in the Middle East enters its third week, hopes for a swift end to the conflict have evaporated. Assessments of the economic consequences are much more dire than they were even a week ago. In a report on March 12, the International Energy Agency said the war “is creating the largest energy supply disruption in the history of the global oil market”. Iran’s de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz – a critical maritime chokepoint that handles around one quarter of global seaborne oil... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3346705/why-asias-crisis-hardened-hotel-sector-can-withstand-iran-war-shock?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3346705/why-asias-crisis-hardened-hotel-sector-can-withstand-iran-war-shock?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Mar 2026 08:30:10 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Even before US President Donald Trump launched his tariff blitz in April last year, Morgan Stanley warned that Asia’s trade-dependent economies were particularly vulnerable to an onslaught of protectionism. The region accounted for seven of the 10 economies with the largest trade surpluses with the United States, while Taiwan, South Korea and Japan derived between 15 and 30 per cent of their corporate revenues from the US. However, those vulnerabilities were less consequential than anticipated.... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3345928/4-reasons-asias-property-will-endure-despite-iran-war-headwinds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3345928/4-reasons-asias-property-will-endure-despite-iran-war-headwinds?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Mar 2026 08:30:08 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro A decade ago, some investors believed the United States’ retail industry was going the way of the subprime mortgage market, whose collapse triggered the 2008 global financial crisis. The combination of the overbuilding of shopping centres and the dramatic rise of online shopping plunged bricks-and-mortar stores into crisis. Fears of a “retail apocalypse” were rife. The double whammy of overcapacity and the “Amazon effect” also hit the United Kingdom’s retail sector hard, with prominent stores... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3345094/unique-resilience-australias-retail-property-deserves-attention?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3345094/unique-resilience-australias-retail-property-deserves-attention?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Mar 2026 06:30:08 +0000 Winston Mok Winston Mok In the early days of 2026, there has been an unexpected turn in China’s global relations. Some US allies have started reaching out to China just as China faced complications in ties with some friendly countries in the Global South. The underlying cause for both trends is the Trump administration’s imperial behaviour. With the dramatic abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and US President Donald Trump’s wish to control Venezuela’s oil, China’s economic stake in one of its closest... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3344410/chinas-latin-america-strategy-goes-well-beyond-venezuela-and-panama?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3344410/chinas-latin-america-strategy-goes-well-beyond-venezuela-and-panama?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Feb 2026 08:30:09 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Concerns about the impact of generative artificial intelligence (AI) abound. At the end of last year, uncertainty over the monetisation of AI was the dominant theme in stock markets. Many investors are worried about the mismatch between the vast sums of money being spent on computing power and the relatively meagre revenues from AI companies and services. While monetisation remains a major concern among investors, fears about AI tools undermining the viability of established business models have... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3344296/why-ai-disruption-isnt-major-threat-indias-booming-office-market?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3344296/why-ai-disruption-isnt-major-threat-indias-booming-office-market?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Feb 2026 08:30:08 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has her work cut out for her. Among the daunting challenges confronting her after winning a resounding victory in a parliamentary election on February 8, tackling the rising cost of living is at the top of her political to-do list. Mounting concerns about the dramatic rise in property prices in Tokyo and other large cities have proved fertile ground for scapegoating, with immigration figuring prominently in election campaigns. Last year, the average price... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3342877/asian-property-markets-supply-constraints-are-double-edged-sword?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3342877/asian-property-markets-supply-constraints-are-double-edged-sword?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Feb 2026 08:31:02 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Hong Kong has its mojo back. The city’s economy grew 3.5 per cent last year, the fastest pace since 2021, according to an advanced estimate published by the Census and Statistics Department on January 30. A sharp increase in exports, the unexpected driver of growth in many Asian economies last year, was a key factor in Hong Kong’s resurgence. The rebound was underpinned by the dramatic revival in the city’s capital markets. Share sales nearly quadrupled last year to more than US$73 billion... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3342044/hong-kongs-housing-market-recovery-rests-solid-foundations?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3342044/hong-kongs-housing-market-recovery-rests-solid-foundations?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Feb 2026 08:30:08 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro For a region that was expected to bear the brunt of US President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz, Asia’s economies performed remarkably well last year. JPMorgan said Asia “dodged a bullet”. However, in the region’s real estate industry, there are other bullets to fear. In the housing market, the severity of the deterioration in affordability is matched only by the futility of many of the policies aimed at improving it. It is not a coincidence that five of the six cities with the fastest rates of... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3339542/affordability-japan-data-centres-what-will-drive-asian-property-2026?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3339542/affordability-japan-data-centres-what-will-drive-asian-property-2026?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Jan 2026 08:30:09 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro A cursory glance at Asia’s commercial real estate leasing and investment markets shows that mainland China and Hong Kong are the weakest links. With the exception of Ho Chi Minh City and Taipei, mainland China’s first-tier cities and Hong Kong are the only markets that will experience a decline in office rents this year, according to Knight Frank data. In the investment market, while transaction volumes across the Asia-Pacific increased 7 per cent in the first three quarters of 2025, they fell... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3338726/will-hong-kong-mainland-property-see-recovery-2026-dont-bet-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3338726/will-hong-kong-mainland-property-see-recovery-2026-dont-bet-it?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Jan 2026 08:30:09 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Calling the recovery in Hong Kong’s property sector has been a devilishly difficult task. Since 2019, a succession of domestic and external shocks has delayed a revival in sales and leasing activity, preventing a broad, sustainable recovery from taking hold and fuelling uncertainty about the timing of a meaningful upturn. To be sure, there have been increasing signs of resilience and strength, especially in the housing market. Average rents hit a record high in September and have risen more than... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3337271/rebound-hong-kongs-central-office-market-could-be-turning-point?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3337271/rebound-hong-kongs-central-office-market-could-be-turning-point?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Dec 2025 08:30:08 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Every quarter, Knight Frank publishes an index tracking the movement of prime residential prices and rents in leading cities around the world. Although the index is just a snapshot that should be treated with caution given significant differences in the performance of submarkets within cities, its findings are nevertheless revealing. In the sales market, five of the six cities with the fastest growth in prices last quarter were in Asia. In Tokyo, prices rose a staggering 56 per cent on an... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3335554/asias-housing-affordability-squeeze-shows-no-signs-slowing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3335554/asias-housing-affordability-squeeze-shows-no-signs-slowing?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Dec 2025 08:31:35 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro HSBC, whose relatively bullish view on China’s residential property sector ranks as one of the bravest calls in markets, said in February that 2025 would mark an inflection point for the ailing industry. “We’ve long anticipated government intervention, pent-up demand and a necessary market correction to drive a gradual recovery in property sales – and we’re seeing signs of all of that playing out now,” HSBC said at the time. These green shoots, however, were confined to first-tier cities and had... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3334727/why-china-vankes-debt-woes-have-barely-made-ripple-markets?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3334727/why-china-vankes-debt-woes-have-barely-made-ripple-markets?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 01 Dec 2025 08:30:12 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro When Sanae Takaichi won the race for the leadership of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party last month, investors and analysts knew what was in store for Asia’s second-largest economy and its relations with its regional neighbours, especially China. Japan’s first female prime minister is a nationalist and strong proponent of fiscal stimulus to boost growth, increase defence spending and tackle a cost-of-living crisis stemming from the surge in prices since the beginning of 2022. In a LinkedIn... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3333893/takaichis-nationalism-and-fiscal-stimulus-test-japans-property-market?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3333893/takaichis-nationalism-and-fiscal-stimulus-test-japans-property-market?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Nov 2025 08:30:16 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro In global stock markets, worries about the economic damage from US President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz seem like a distant memory. The overriding concern in the past few months has been the threat of a bubble in artificial intelligence (AI). In Bank of America’s latest monthly global fund manager survey, an AI equity bubble was cited as the top “tail risk”, posing a bigger threat than the resurgence of inflation. Although various factors are at play, the issue that most perturbs investors is... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3333044/ai-fuelled-data-centre-bubble-making-not-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3333044/ai-fuelled-data-centre-bubble-making-not-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Nov 2025 08:30:11 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro In an interview with Fox News in April, Peter Navarro, US President Donald Trump’s senior counsellor for trade and manufacturing, described Vietnam as “essentially a colony of communist China”. For someone who believes trade negotiations with Beijing are pointless, such extremist views are unsurprising. Yet the fact that Navarro, the chief architect of Trump’s trade wars, has it in for Vietnam attests to both the vulnerability and the strength of the country’s manufacturing sector. Among the... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3332154/vietnams-property-sector-prime-example-asias-tariff-resilience?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3332154/vietnams-property-sector-prime-example-asias-tariff-resilience?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Nov 2025 08:30:09 +0000 Winston Mok Winston Mok After a video call last Saturday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng are expected to meet in Malaysia this week to hopefully ease tensions before US President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping potentially meet on the sidelines of this year’s Apec summit. The meeting was in doubt when Trump threatened to impose an additional 100 per cent tariff on China, despite later relenting that it might not be sustainable. Washington blamed Beijing for the escalation,... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3329654/can-scott-bessent-see-chinas-trade-counterstrike-clear-eyes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3329654/can-scott-bessent-see-chinas-trade-counterstrike-clear-eyes?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Oct 2025 08:30:10 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro For a country known as the “land of smiles”, Thailand has had little reason to be cheerful this year. While export-dependent economies in Asia have had a rough time since US President Donald Trump launched his assault on the global trading order, the headwinds buffeting Thailand have been multifaceted and more severe. HSBC said Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy has suffered “a rare misalignment of events” and has been “swimming against the tide for quite some time now”. This is putting it... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3329623/why-thai-property-investors-can-find-reason-cheer-dismal-2025?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3329623/why-thai-property-investors-can-find-reason-cheer-dismal-2025?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Oct 2025 08:30:08 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro For a country whose currency was once perceived by many global investors as a safe haven, the Japanese yen is in dire straits. Between March 2022 and July 2024, the yen plunged 40 per cent to its lowest level against the US dollar since 1986. Since then, Japan’s currency has been volatile, buffeted by external and domestic cross-currents. The uncertain outlook for the yen is partly attributable to the acute policy dilemmas facing the Bank of Japan. The country’s central bank is under pressure to... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3328755/why-japans-hotel-operators-have-nothing-fear-tourism-backlash?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3328755/why-japans-hotel-operators-have-nothing-fear-tourism-backlash?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Oct 2025 08:30:07 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro It is easy to be critical of Singapore’s seemingly never-ending property cooling measures. Since 2009, the government has intervened at least 15 times in an effort to take the heat out of the city state’s residential real estate market. Despite this, average prices of second-hand private properties as well as those built by the Housing and Development Board (HDB), Singapore’s public housing authority, keep hitting new highs. Even historically cheap suburban areas are no longer a “budget... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3327972/how-cooling-measures-are-keeping-singapores-property-market-stable?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3327972/how-cooling-measures-are-keeping-singapores-property-market-stable?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Oct 2025 08:30:07 +0000 Winston Mok Winston Mok US hopes of getting China to place big orders of Boeing jets have risen anew after reports of progress, including a framework agreement on TikTok, at the fourth round of trade negotiations in the Spanish capital of Madrid. Praising the progress, US President Donald Trump said he would meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Seoul, which starts at the end of next month, and plans to visit China early next year. But why would China wish to buy US... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3326257/how-will-trump-revive-us-shipbuilding-after-years-protectionist-rot?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3326257/how-will-trump-revive-us-shipbuilding-after-years-protectionist-rot?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:30:08 +0000 Agencies Agencies Disney said Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return to its ABC network line-up on Tuesday, six days after it suspended the talk-show host following threats by the Federal Communications Commission chairman over comments the host had made about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. In announcing the decision to bring Kimmel back to the airwaves, ABC’s parent company said it had suspended production of the show “to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country”. The Disney... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3326447/hundreds-stars-sign-letter-defending-free-speech-after-jimmy-kimmels-suspension?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3326447/hundreds-stars-sign-letter-defending-free-speech-after-jimmy-kimmels-suspension?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Sep 2025 19:40:29 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro For one of the biggest disconnects between financial markets and economies in Asia, look no further than Hong Kong. The dramatic revival of the city’s stock market this year has catapulted it to the top of the global rankings for initial public offerings (IPOs). Mainland Chinese companies are lining up in droves to list in Hong Kong, showcasing the city’s position as the dominant offshore dollar funding centre in Asia. In both local currency and US dollar terms, the Hang Seng Index has been one... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3326344/why-hong-kongs-commercial-property-market-could-do-some-stress?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3326344/why-hong-kongs-commercial-property-market-could-do-some-stress?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Sep 2025 08:30:08 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro In Asia’s real estate sector, South Korea is a star performer. In the first half of this year, the region’s fourth-largest economy recorded the second-highest volume of commercial real estate transactions after Japan. Moreover, Seoul experienced the strongest growth in prime residential prices in annualised terms in the second quarter among 46 markets tracked by Knight Frank. Singapore is another top performer. Office vacancy rates are among the lowest in the region while the city state was one... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3325541/asias-top-property-markets-must-tackle-root-unaffordability?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3325541/asias-top-property-markets-must-tackle-root-unaffordability?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Sep 2025 08:30:08 +0000 Winston Mok Winston Mok Silicon Valley is dominated by tech leaders of Indian origin. While Chinese tech companies have achieved global dominance across multiple sectors, why are India-based tech firms – other than in select areas such as software outsourcing – less influential? Why does Indian talent seem to flourish more outside India? Silicon Valley has risen to third place in the innovation cluster rankings of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), long dominated by East Asia. This year, the Greater... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3324732/together-china-and-india-can-be-tech-innovation-force?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3324732/together-china-and-india-can-be-tech-innovation-force?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 09 Sep 2025 10:30:08 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro The facts speak for themselves. In 2019, investment transaction volumes in the office markets of central London and the New York borough of Manhattan reached US$17 billion and nearly US$16 billion respectively, according to MSCI. Last year, they stood at between US$2 billion and US$3 billion. The Covid-19 pandemic, which kept many workers around the world at home, sapped demand for office space. Meanwhile, the sharp rise in interest rates hurt the sector even more, reducing the value of office... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3324697/resilient-asia-shines-global-office-market-sees-signs-recovery?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3324697/resilient-asia-shines-global-office-market-sees-signs-recovery?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Sep 2025 08:30:07 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Government measures to deter foreign buyers from purchasing residential properties are by no means the preserve of Asian economies. In February 2024, Canada extended a nationwide ban on most foreign buyers until 2027 in an effort to curb speculation and improve affordability. In the US, a growing number of states, including Texas and Florida, have passed laws barring nationals from several countries, notably China and Russia, from acquiring land and property. Yet in the most liveable cities in... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3323863/why-south-korea-and-japan-are-turning-against-foreign-homebuyers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3323863/why-south-korea-and-japan-are-turning-against-foreign-homebuyers?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 01 Sep 2025 08:30:07 +0000 Winston Mok Winston Mok Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive in Tianjin on Sunday for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, his first visit to China in seven years, against a backdrop of the United States’ 50 per cent tariffs on India. As India and China mark the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations, they must not let the unfortunate Ladakh clashes of 2020 overshadow their win-win future. Among non-communist states, India was the first Asian nation to recognise the People’s Republic of China.... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3323138/india-still-needs-china-catch-chinese-manufacturing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3323138/india-still-needs-china-catch-chinese-manufacturing?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 Aug 2025 08:30:07 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Indian stocks have had a good run. Since the end of March 2020, the Nifty 50, one of India’s main equity gauges, has risen almost 190 per cent. It has outperformed the benchmark S&P 500 index, which itself is up more than 150 per cent. Yet in the past year, the ferocious rally has given way to volatility, concerns over lofty valuations and worries about growth and corporate earnings. The unexpected decision earlier this month by US President Donald Trump to impose swingeing tariffs of 50 per... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3323021/sell-india-buy-china-dont-get-stock-and-property-markets-confused?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3323021/sell-india-buy-china-dont-get-stock-and-property-markets-confused?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Aug 2025 08:30:07 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro One of the big themes in Asia’s real estate industry this year is divergence. The average price of second-hand homes in Japan in the first quarter of 2025 rose at an annualised pace of 9.5 per cent, while in mainland China it contracted 7.5 per cent, according to Knight Frank’s Global House Price Index. In the commercial property market, investment activity in Australia was up 15 per cent in the first half of this year, while in Hong Kong it fell 59 per cent, according to MSCI data. In fact, one... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3322185/how-closer-mainland-integration-lifting-hong-kongs-residential-market?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3322185/how-closer-mainland-integration-lifting-hong-kongs-residential-market?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Aug 2025 08:30:09 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro In China’s stock market, the influence of the “national team” – the term for a group of state-backed institutional investors set up in 2015 to support share prices, mainly via purchases of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) – has been particularly apparent since US President Donald Trump launched his assault on the global trade order in early April. Central Huijin Investment, a unit of China’s sovereign wealth fund that has been described as a “stabilisation” fund, ploughed 197.5 billion yuan (US$27.6... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3321413/chinas-commercial-property-market-has-its-own-version-national-team?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3321413/chinas-commercial-property-market-has-its-own-version-national-team?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 Aug 2025 08:30:07 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Every quarter, MSCI publishes a ranking of the most actively traded cities in Asia’s commercial property investment market. As recently as 2022, the most widely traded metropolises included major capitals such as Tokyo and Seoul, as well as leading cities such as Shanghai and Sydney. Fast forward to 2024 and the ranking was more diverse. Chiba, the prefecture just east of Tokyo, and Osaka, Japan’s third-biggest city, were among the top 10 for the whole of last year. Moreover, in the first... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3320636/why-osaka-bengaluru-and-johor-are-overlooked-drivers-asia-property?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3320636/why-osaka-bengaluru-and-johor-are-overlooked-drivers-asia-property?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 Aug 2025 08:30:09 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Japan has entered a period of profound change. Inflation has returned after decades of deflation and stagnation. Japan’s relations with the United States, which helped underpin the post-war global order, have deteriorated dramatically. A culturally homogenous nation is experiencing an epic boom in tourism. More surprisingly, a country renowned for political stability is at risk from the anti-establishment populism that has upended politics in other advanced economies. The ruling Liberal... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3319789/inflation-political-turmoil-wont-put-investors-japanese-property?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3319789/inflation-political-turmoil-wont-put-investors-japanese-property?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 28 Jul 2025 08:30:08 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro US President Donald Trump’s administration has Asia’s economies in its sights. The region has become more trade-dependent since the 2018-19 US-China trade war. Asia ex-China’s trade surplus with the US doubled from September 2019 to US$400 billion at the end of last year. However, it is not just the widening trade imbalance that has incurred the Trump administration’s wrath. The surge in Asian, particularly Southeast Asian, exports to the US was accompanied by a sharp increase in Chinese imports... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3318955/what-does-trumps-transshipment-crackdown-mean-asian-industrial-property?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3318955/what-does-trumps-transshipment-crackdown-mean-asian-industrial-property?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 21 Jul 2025 08:30:51 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro A cursory glance at the hotel development pipeline in the Asia-Pacific region shows how dominant the big global chains are. The eight largest operators, which include Marriott and Hilton, account for 74 per cent of expected completions in the next five years, according to CBRE data. Moreover, the number of brands operated by the eight companies more than doubled in the past decade to 130 at the end of last year, with upscale and luxury hotels accounting for the bulk of the growth in the region.... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3318090/why-chinas-domestic-hotels-have-edge-over-western-competitors?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3318090/why-chinas-domestic-hotels-have-edge-over-western-competitors?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Jul 2025 08:30:07 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Is the tide turning for Hong Kong’s ailing property market? When second-hand home prices are down almost 30 per cent from their peak in August 2021 and rents for grade A offices are more than 40 per cent lower than in the second quarter of 2019, talk of a recovery seems wildly premature. But expectations, sentiment and the prism through which the performance and outlook for the sector are viewed are important. Since the beginning of this year, the mood in Hong Kong has improved markedly. Much of... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3317195/hong-kongs-equity-market-revival-helps-lift-property-sector-sentiment?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3317195/hong-kongs-equity-market-revival-helps-lift-property-sector-sentiment?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 07 Jul 2025 08:30:10 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Divergences and idiosyncrasies are an important part of Asia’s real estate landscape. Whether it is the stark contrast between Seoul’s remarkably resilient office market and its ailing counterpart in Hong Kong or the big difference between Japan’s mature and institutionalised rental housing market and its nascent peers elsewhere in the region, Asia’s property sector is far from homogeneous. Yet among the leading economies in the region, the performance gap between China and India is far and away... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3316331/why-indias-real-estate-surge-doesnt-make-it-substitute-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3316331/why-indias-real-estate-surge-doesnt-make-it-substitute-china?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 30 Jun 2025 08:30:08 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro As recently as last month, S&P Global Ratings struck a cautiously optimistic tone on the outlook for China’s housing market. In a report on May 11, S&P said the sector “is finally approaching stabilisation”, pointing to shallower year-on-year declines in prices of new and second-hand homes in Tier 1 cities. In fact, on a monthly basis, prices began to grow in the final months of last year in response to Beijing’s more forceful stimulus measures. However, a cursory glance at the latest data on... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3315439/chinas-housing-woes-demand-action-even-if-investors-look-away?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3315439/chinas-housing-woes-demand-action-even-if-investors-look-away?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Jun 2025 08:30:08 +0000 Winston Mok Winston Mok Where would the United States be without immigrant talent? Some of the country’s leading tech companies, including Alphabet and Nvidia, were founded or co-founded by immigrants. Two-thirds of the tech workers in Silicon Valley are foreign-born. According to research by the Institute for Progress, 60 per cent of the US’ top artificial intelligence (AI) companies have immigrant founders, including former international students. The role of Cambridge, Massachusetts as a magnet for global talent is... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3313712/us-crackdowns-academia-will-only-send-global-talent-elsewhere?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3313712/us-crackdowns-academia-will-only-send-global-talent-elsewhere?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Jun 2025 08:30:08 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Two findings stood out in CBRE’s survey on Asia’s commercial property investment market published last month. The first was that Japan alone accounted for 36 per cent of transaction volumes in the first quarter of this year. The second was that it was easily the most popular market among cross-border investors, with 86 per cent of respondents describing their level of interest in Japan as very strong or fairly strong. These findings underscore the strong appeal of a market that has long been... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3312696/japan-and-singapore-show-even-property-safe-havens-are-not-problem-free?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3312696/japan-and-singapore-show-even-property-safe-havens-are-not-problem-free?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Jun 2025 08:30:08 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro For a textbook case of how not to boost exports of higher education, look no further than the deplorable decision by US President Donald Trump’s administration on May 22 to bar Harvard University from enrolling international students. The ban would force Harvard’s 6,800 foreign students to enrol elsewhere or lose their legal status to study in the US. While a US district judge temporarily blocked Trump’s order, the ban sends a chilling message. The Department of Homeland Security said it was... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3311779/trumps-war-universities-not-threat-student-housing-market?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3311779/trumps-war-universities-not-threat-student-housing-market?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 May 2025 08:31:00 +0000 Nicholas Spiro Nicholas Spiro Are there reasons to be bullish on China’s property market? A cursory glance at the performance of the sector in recent years provides ample grounds for pessimism. In the residential market, the value of new home sales, housing starts and real estate investment plunged 46.8 per cent, 62.8 per cent and 37.9 per cent respectively between the peak of the market in 2021 and the end of last year, according to data from Nomura. In the commercial market, office vacancy rates in Shenzhen, Shanghai and... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3309958/chinas-property-market-more-just-struggling-residential-sector?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3309958/chinas-property-market-more-just-struggling-residential-sector?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 May 2025 08:30:13 +0000 When US President Donald Trump unveiled his sweeping “reciprocal” trade tariffs on April 2, prompting swift retaliation from China and triggering a full-blown trade war between the two countries, Asia’s economies quickly came under the spotlight. Societe Generale said that “it is not exactly surprising Asia has been targeted the most among regions given its large surpluses over the US and its leading role in global manufacturing supply chains”. Yet no sooner did concerns about Asia’s... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3307273/could-asian-and-european-real-estate-benefit-heightened-us-risks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3307273/could-asian-and-european-real-estate-benefit-heightened-us-risks?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 21 Apr 2025 08:32:38 +0000 When China’s stock market resumed its sharp decline in 2023 despite the reopening of the economy, Bank of America came up with a catchy acronym to describe the growing appeal of investment strategies and products that excluded China, particularly “Asia ex-China” products. The MSCI China Index began to fall dramatically after 2021 while the Nikkei 225 index kept rising and surpassed its 1980s bubble era peak last year. Commenting on the stark divergence in the performance of Chinese and Japanese... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3306401/asian-real-estate-trumpian-age-buy-japan-and-india-avoid-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3306401/asian-real-estate-trumpian-age-buy-japan-and-india-avoid-china?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Apr 2025 08:30:07 +0000