With Cityscape Asia, Singapore becomes the first city outside Dubai to present one of real estate’s biggest events.

With Cityscape Asia, Singapore becomes the first city outside Dubai to present one of real estate’s biggest events. JANICE HENG reports

One of real estate’s biggest events has gone global, with Cityscape Asia - sister exhibition to the established Cityscape Dubai - being staged at Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre from today until Thursday.

The event includes over 100 exhibitors, and is expected to draw more than 5,000 participants from the property industry, including international investors, developers, government and development authorities, architects, designers and consultants.

Cityscape Asia is the Cityscape brand’s first foray out of Dubai. ‘A survey was conducted with Cityscape Dubai 2005 participants, and almost half (42 per cent) chose Singapore as the preferred Asian venue for Cityscape Asia,’ said Cityscape Asia project director Theresa Gan.

‘Together with the region’s buoyant property environment, there is no better time for Cityscape Asia to take place in Singapore,’ she added.

Cityscape Dubai bills itself as the world’s largest property investment and development event. In 2006, the fifth Cityscape Dubai featured over 500 exhibitors from 55 countries, and attracted more than 32,000 real estate professionals.

In Singapore, three conference programmes will be held in tandem with the exhibition. Day One of the main conference features topics such as Singapore real estate opportunities - presented by Cheong Koon Hean, chief executive of the Urban Redevelopment Authority - and the sustainability of Asia’s real estate market, as well as Islamic real estate finance issues and opportunities.

The second day will see focused talks on the residential, retail, hotel and commercial sectors of the property market. Talks on the hotel sector will address the global hotel investment market - who is buying, and where - as well as growing tourism trends in Asia. Gurjit Singh, Sentosa Leisure Group’s director of property, will speak on the trend of condo hotels.

A less traditional topic is industrial parks, on which Marc Townsend, managing director of CB Richard Ellis Vietnam, will be speaking.

Day Three opens with a talk on real estate branding, but the focus then shifts to India and China. The speakers include Zheng Xiaoping, director of Bazo Investments Asia, who will address new investment trends in second-tier cities.

Alongside the main conference are the World Architecture Congress and Retail City programmes, which focus on architecture and design, and retail development respectively. Retail City includes a site visit to Singapore’s VivoCity shopping mall.

Singapore is ‘the perfect destination’ for Cityscape, said exhibition director Neil Hickman. ‘Cityscape is all about access, and due to not only its location but also its superb MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions, exhibitions) facilities, Singapore allows this access to happen for the global development and investment market.’

Cityscape Asia kicks off a year of overseas endeavours for Cityscape, with events in China, Abu Dhabi and India - but it is the only regional exhibition, as the others are country-focused.

‘Singapore provides access to the wider region of South-east Asia,’ said Mr Hickman, citing the list of exhibitors from countries, including Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

‘We are really happy to see Vietnam being showcased through Ho Chi Minh City, which is the region’s coming hotspot for investment and development,’ he added. The Investment and Trade Promotion Centre of Ho Chi Minh City is one of the exhibitors.

The exhibition is not a strictly regional event, however. The Middle East makes a strong showing, taking up over a quarter of the exhibition space and being represented by major players such as Dubai’s Fortune Investment Group and Dheeraj And East Coast.

And after the three-day event, developers and investors will have something else to look forward to: Cityscape China hits Shanghai on May 24.

Source: The Business Times, 10 April 2007