Aug 12: Asia Pacific’s commercial real estate recovery gathered pace in the first half of 2026, with investment volumes rising 22 percentage year-on-year as capital returned decisively to the region’s traditional sectors, according to Savills‘ latest Capital Markets research, Capital Signals.
The report highlights that retail recorded the strongest recovery, with investment volumes increasing by 51 percentage , followed by offices and industrial & logistics. At a market level, performance varied across the region, with Singapore and Taiwan outperforming on the back of several large transactions, while Mainland China and Hong Kong also recorded strong year-on-year growth from a lower base.
Alongside improving investment activity, investor behaviour is also evolving. Partial-stake acquisitions have reached record levels, driven by partner buyouts and quasi-secondary transactions, while joint ventures and club deals are increasingly replacing traditional pooled investment vehicles. Investors are seeking greater alignment, enhanced portfolio control and more targeted exposure to high-conviction investment themes.
Against this backdrop, India continues to stand out as one of Asia Pacific’s most compelling long-term real estate investment destinations. Supported by sustained economic growth, robust occupier demand, infrastructure expansion and an increasingly institutionalised real estate market, India offers investors both scale and long-term growth opportunities across traditional and emerging sectors.
Commenting on the findings, Anurag Mathur, CEO, Savills India, said,
“The broadening recovery across Asia Pacific reflects growing investor confidence in commercial real estate as macroeconomic conditions stabilise and capital returns to core sectors. India is particularly well-positioned within this environment, underpinned by strong economic fundamentals, resilient office demand, expanding industrial and logistics infrastructure, and continued institutional investor interest. As global investors reassess portfolio allocations over the coming years, India is expected to remain a preferred destination due to its favourable demographics, depth of occupier demand and ongoing infrastructure-led growth.”
The report also highlights a significant pipeline of maturing private fund capital across Asia Pacific. Savills estimates that approximately US$265 billion of assets held by Asia Pacific-focused private funds will mature by 2031, with the largest concentration expected in 2029. This is anticipated to accelerate portfolio rotation, bringing more traditional office and retail assets to market while increasing investor allocation towards sectors such as data centres and living.
The data centre sector continues to emerge as one of the region’s strongest investment themes. Operational capacity across Asia Pacific reached 16.1GW during the second quarter of 2026, with an additional 25.5GW planned or under development and occupancy approaching 90percentage . As facilities continue to increase in scale, investors are increasingly favouring platform investments, joint ventures and forward-funding structures over single-asset acquisitions.
For India, these evolving capital allocation trends are expected to reinforce investment across both established and emerging asset classes. The country’s expanding digital economy, growing demand for logistics infrastructure, increasing institutional ownership and maturing commercial real estate market position to benefit from the next phase of regional investment activity as investors seek resilient, long-term opportunities across Asia Pacific.
Nicholas Wilson, Senior Director, Strategic Research & Advisory, Asia Pacific Capital Markets at Savills, said:
“The recovery has moved beyond the early, opportunistic phase and is broadening back into the core of the market. Investors are no longer just asking where the value is, but how best to access it. That is why we are seeing record levels of partial-stake and joint-venture activity, as capital chases control, alignment and conviction rather than simply market exposure.“The maturity wall building towards 2029 will be one of the defining forces of the next few years. It will bring more traditional assets to market at the same time as investors rotate into data centres and living, and that reshaping of portfolios is where the real opportunity lies. Hong Kong is a case in point: it is now at the mature end of its repricing cycle, and history tells us the strongest returns in that market are captured within a short window of the turning point.”