Falling oil price will benefit real estate sector in Asia: JLL report

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MUMBAI, JANUARY 19:  Plummeting oil prices will be largely beneficial to Asian real estate markets, according to global real estate consultancy JLL.

The large energy dependent economies of China, Japan, Korea and India will be net beneficiaries of lower oil prices and as the largest markets in Asia Pacific, this could reverberate throughout the region and provide downstream support to the developing economies.

Improved demand

Four out of the top five oil-importing nations are in the Asia Pacific and energy price decline supports industrial output, besides increasing demand in the retail sector as costs fall for consumers, the consultancy said. Nicholas Wilson, Senior Manager, Asia Pacific Capital Markets, JLL, said: “Both logistics and retail markets will benefit from improving household balance sheets, as energy costs absorb less consumer income.

“This should result in improving demand for discretionary goods and will support retail and e-commerce spending. Logistics markets will also benefit from falling transportation costs, a key component for the market. Real estate developers are also likely to see some benefit from falling prices as building materials and transport costs will ease upward pressure on construction outlay.”

Logistics sector

Nirav Kothary, Head – Industrial Services, JLL India, said lower energy prices definitely have a very positive impact on the logistics sector as it reduces transportation cost, which happens to be more that 35 per cent of total logistics cost in India.

Silver lining

World Bank Group’s Global Economic Prospects (GEP) report released on Tuesday said: “Amongst large middle-income countries that will benefit from lower oil prices is India, where growth is expected to accelerate to 6.4 per cent this year (from 5.6 per cent in 2014), rising to 7 percent in 2016-17.”

Kaushik Basu, Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President, World Bank, said: “Worryingly, the stalled recovery in some high-income economies and even some middle-income countries may be a symptom of deeper structural malaise.”

Courtesy: The Hindu Business Line