Featured Insights

• The top five technology centres in APAC are Beijing, Shanghai, Bengaluru, Shenzhen and Singapore. Other cities are developing strengths in specific areas of technology, e.g., Seoul and Hong Kong in fintech, while in Hyderabad and Sydney are emerging
• Among upcoming Indian submarkets, Colliers highlights Whitefield and North Bengaluru in Bengaluru, Peripheral Business District in Hyderabad, and Noida Expressway and Golf Course Extension Road (Gurguram) in Delhi NCR, among others.
• In APAC, technology occupiers should account for 20%-25% of office leasing demand in the next five years. Our research identifies the most attractive technology submarkets across APAC to help occupiers plan their expansion
• The emergence of technology groups as large owner-occupiers creates a new source of capital for investors planning asset disposals, as well as new opportunities for joint ventures and partnerships for developers.

Customer expectations, advancing technology and a burgeoning build-to-rent sector are encouraging the best residential landlords to boost their “digital kerb appeal”, says Yardi’s Paul Yount.

Yount, Yardi’s industry principal and product manager for RENTCafé, says renters no longer expect to spend their Saturdays pounding the pavement or filling in dozens of rental application forms.

“We know many apartment hunters prefer online interactions, and 14 per cent of today’s apartment renters are willing to sign a lease without even seeing the property in person,” he says.

The explosion of ecommerce in recent years has driven an evolution in customer expectations. If a customer can expect a fast and frictionless experience when they make a purchase online, why wouldn’t they expect the same experience when choosing their next apartment?

“Physical kerb appeal has always been important in real estate. But now digital kerb appeal is more important,” Yount explains.

Virtual tours, a phenomenon already gathering speed before COVID-19, are now the preferred way for renters to select their next apartment, Yount adds. He points to a Yardi survey of RENTCafé users which found nearly a third (31%) preferred self-guided tours or had no preference, pre-COVID.

“Now, most renters would prefer a self-scheduled tour in their next apartment search – in fact 83 per cent of apartment shoppers tell us they’d prefer to take a self-guided tour if one was available.”

Yardi’s research is backed up by the largest survey of apartment residents, undertaken by the National Multifamily Housing Council in the United States. This survey, which got inside the minds of 372,000 apartment residents in 2020, found:

• 100% would prefer to engage with a mobile app rather than a website
• 90% want to make an individual apartment selection online and
• 81% want videos of apartment models and amenities.

The appeal of self-guided tours, powered by Yardi’s technology, is not just about social distancing. Two thirds of renters want to tour a property at their own pace, and just under half want to check out a property after hours.

Does that mean today’s renter prefers a high-tech experience over a high-touch, personalised approach? Yount compares the expectations of today’s renter with that of a grocery shopper.

“Some people like old-school checkouts, others prefer self-checkout, some like kerbside pickups while others opt for delivery services. Today’s consumer wants to do business in a lot of different ways.”

So, what are Yardi’s top three high-tech, high-touch plays to build loyalty and create long-term connections with renters?

Download Yardi’s latest paper to find out.

• Savills Tech Cities are important centres for tech in their region and venture capital (VC) investment hotspots. Vibrant cities in which to live and work, they are magnets for talent.
• Wellness matters more than ever to both tech talent and business occupiers. Our Tech Lifestyle Cities have an edge here, with better air quality, access to greenspace and smaller footprints. Savills Digital Nomad Essentials Index highlights some of the factors that count to talent today.
• In spite of 2020’s upheavals, the Tech Megacities continue to dominate VC investment, led by Beijing and San Francisco. Singapore has received a boost, benefiting in part from the US-China trade war.
• A new raft of Rising Global Tech Contender cities are emerging, ranging from Detroit to Yokohama. Growth is fuelled by technological advances, government initiatives and cost advantages.
• While many tech companies have adopted work from home strategies in the wake of the pandemic, their city centre offices and campuses, in which they have invested heavily, will remain important as places for staff to collaborate, to instil company culture, and to attract the best and brightest.
• Out of town tech campuses have taken on a fresh relevance in a time of social distancing and newfound focus on health and wellbeing. We explore five examples with wellness at their core

Data Centers are instrumental to the successful development of our pillar industries, being integral to the efficient operation of financial, trading and logistics services in Hong Kong. With rapid development of global telecommunications and the growing emphasis on technological advancement for daily convenience, the demand for high-tier data center services from users like of “cloud computing”, “E-commerce” and “high-frequency trading” has never been greater in Hong Kong. According to the LegCo paper in December 2013, the government had originally reserved three sites in Tseung Kwan O for building Data Centers. After the first site was sold, the remaining two adjoining sites were consolidated into one. All the three sites designated for data center uses are eventually acquired by the same data center operator. The market interest on industrial land remains very keen; as witnessed by the record transaction price in the recent sale by the government of an industrial land in Shatin, which was purchased through public tender by the world’s largest wireless network operator, China Mobile. The fierce competition among developers and other tenderers for this lot has justified government alarm over the shortage of Data Centers and the urgency to raise the supply of land for them.

Amid the ongoing expansion of Data Center services in Hong Kong, it is clear that the government is unable to meet the ever-rising demand in provision of land. While many operators might not need an entire Data Center block, there exists substantial demand for small-scale cloud-calculation Data Centers. In 2012, the government introduced a policy to promote the conversion of industrial buildings to Data Center use. The waiver fee for changing parts of industrial building aged 15 years or above into Data Centre use first is exempted. The exemption is applicable to Data Centre of all tiers. Since the conversion of industrial buildings into Data Centers drastically reduces development costs, landlords of old industrial assets would have more incentive to revitalize and covert their buildings into higher value-added Data Centers. It is therefore reasonable to infer that this new government policy will greatly stimulate the supply of small-scale Data Centers, helping to meet the demand of multiple businesses.

Indisputably, if Hong Kong aims to become an international Data Center hub in APAC, the provisions of suitable land plots supported by well-developed infrastructure and facilities are of utmost importance. World tech behemoths Google and Facebook had considered setting up data centers in Hong Kong but eventually abandoned their plans in 2013 and 2018 respectively. Google’s official explanation at that time was the paucity of land for future expansion. Eventually, Google picked a site in Taiwan’s Changhua County as the new location of its Data Center – five times larger than the original one in Tseung Kwan O, Hong Kong. Currently, Google is running two Data Centers in Asia, one in Taiwan and the other in Singapore. These sites are chosen because of multifaceted factors like attractive land prices, comparatively low energy costs and the geographical proximity to its Asia-Pacific Headquarters. In addition, the utilization of renewable energy is one of the Google’s top priorities. In 2012, Google announced its renewable energy use target to be 100%, maximizing the use of clean energy sources for generating electricity. In stark contrast, Hong Kong produces just 3 % of total electricity demand from renewable energy sources which, as identified by the Hong Kong Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, would go against the “green philosophy” valued by Google. Limited space for further expansion, less-developed renewable energy supplies and a tepid response from the local government have seemingly restrained Hong Kong’s Data Center and high-tech industry development.

Apart from land resources, other ancillary facilities and human resources are also fundamental for Hong Kong to tackle in striving to be an Asia-Pacific Data Center hub. There are some prerequisites for a premise to be suitable for use as a Data Center, such as high ceiling height, flexible floor layout, a standardized fire system and sufficient spaces for the installation of supporting equipment (transformer rooms, backup generators, etc.). It is highly suggested that different government departments, inter alia the Lands Department and the Buildings Department, should provide and update proper guidelines in a timely manner to expedite the application procedures by the owners or their APs. The goal of becoming a successful Data Center hub in the Asia-Pacific region, cannot be achieved without the government’s support and favorable policy to ensure our competitiveness against other cities in the region.