Asia-Pacific Property Investment Rose 45% in the second half of 2011

When it comes to financial markets, the speculators prefer to put their money were prices are rising. This is the very opposite of any other market. For example, when you go shopping, you prefer to buy more when items are on special offers or on sales. But when speculating, the opposite is true: higher prices attract more investment.

Here, assets are ballooning, and targeting Australia and China, the two biggest real estate bubbles probably bigger than the UK...

This will end in tears.

March 10 (Bloomberg) -- The money earmarked for property investments in the Asia-Pacific region rose 45 percent in the second half [of the year] as China’s expanding economy made them more attractive, according to estimates compiled by DTZ Group Plc.

Real-estate funds and companies had about $104 billion available for investments in the region, up from $71 billion a year earlier, the London-based property broker said in a report today. Local funds and companies accounted for 92 percent of the total, according to DTZ’s “Great Wall of Money” study.

“China and Australia remain the most popular target countries in the region,” said David Green-Morgan, head of research for the Asia-Pacific countries.

The region accounted for almost 32 percent of the $329 billion set aside for real-estate acquisitions at the end of 2010, up from 24 percent a year earlier, DTZ’s study showed.

China attracted the most real-estate investment in the world for a second straight year in 2010, New York-based Real Capital Analytics Inc. said in January. Most of the $197 billion spent in the country was used to buy development sites, the property-research firm said.
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Money earmarked for property investment worldwide climbed 17 percent in the six-month period. Investments were spread equally between the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe regions. That’s a change from 2008, when about half the money was invested in Europe.

Europe registered a 2 percent increase in money targeting real estate to $114 billion, while in the Americas there was a 14 percent gain to $111 billion, DTZ estimates.