News roundup: Major global hotel operators expanding rapidly across APAC, plus more news

For PropertyGuru’s real estate news roundup, major global hotel operators are expanding rapidly in the Asia Pacific region. In more updates, data centres are experiencing once-in-a-generation demand growth in Australia, and a complete guide to high-income group (HIG) flats in India.

Major hotel operators expanding rapidly across Asia Pacific in 2024

According to CBRE, the hotel market in the Asia Pacific region is undergoing significant structural changes. Hotel owners and operators are adjusting their operational and branding strategies in response to increased labour and utility costs, limited new supply, and the extended peak of the interest rate cycle.

Major global hotel operators are expanding rapidly in the region, as reported in The World Property Journal. Nearly half of the new hotels in the development pipeline are being developed in partnership with five major hotel groups: Marriott (60,566 rooms), Accor (47,052 rooms), IHG (34,227 rooms), Hilton (31,606 rooms), and Wyndham (21,455 rooms). These operators are investing heavily in loyalty programs and niche segments to capture market share while significantly enhancing their technological capabilities.

Despite prolonged high interest rates worldwide, hotel investment in the Asia Pacific region has remained resilient. This is driven by continued interest in Japan and Australia, a record-breaking year for serviced residence sales in mainland China, and a steady flow of deals in a strong Korean market.

How digital real estate in Australia is powering ahead in the AI age

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, the growth in cloud and edge computing, the widespread use of web-enabled devices, and the proliferation of e-commerce and streaming services are leading to exponential data creation and storage.

It is estimated that 90 per cent of the world’s data has been generated in the past two years, with projections indicating that we will produce twice as much data in the next five years as we have in the past decade.

This phenomenal growth has resulted in an unprecedented demand for data centres.

Jon Gray, COO of Blackstone, the world’s largest real estate investor, stated in realcommercial.com.au: “Data centres are experiencing once-in-a-generation demand growth, driven by cloud adoption and the AI revolution. Digital infrastructure is one of our highest conviction investment themes as a firm.”

Australia is widely acknowledged as a significant market for data centres. According to Cushman & Wakefield’s 2024 Global Data Centre Market Comparison, Sydney achieved a ranking of ninth among the top 10 global data centre markets and third in the Asia-Pacific region.

A complete guide to high-income group (HIG) flats in India

With the population of the country skyrocketing with time, the demand for residential property is also ever on the rise. Therefore, providing housing for all has been a key concern of the Indian government. Government housing schemes make homeownership easier for people by offering affordable housing. The homes provided under this scheme are largely divided into low-income group (LIG), middle-income group (MIG), high-income group (HIG) and economically weaker sections (EWS) flats. This Housing.com article will delve deeper into the category of HIG flats and take a look at the various government schemes that offer them.

The Property Report editors wrote this article. For more information, email: [email protected].