Asia Pacific leads global real estate transparency gains

JLL has published its 2026 Global Real Estate Transparency Index, which found that Asia Pacific accounted for half of the world's 10 most improved markets.

Two-thirds of the markets covered recorded higher transparency over the past two years. The index tracks the quality of market data, governance, regulation and disclosure in commercial real estate.

Transaction volumes in markets classed as highly transparent rose 64% over the period, outpacing the rest of the world by 20 percentage points. Those 13 markets now account for 56% of global income-producing real estate and more than 80% of direct investment.

Asia Pacific featured prominently among the biggest movers. India, Vietnam, South Korea, Australia and Thailand were the region's leading improvers, with India topping the global rankings for gains in transparency.

India's rise was linked to wider digital infrastructure, better market data and growth in real estate investment trusts. Vietnam, South Korea and Thailand were cited for stronger corporate governance, improved legal enforcement and broader disclosure in alternative property segments, while Australia continued to advance from an already high base.

Direct transaction volumes in India and Vietnam reached record levels, attracting a combined USD $12 billion over the past two years. A rebound in cross-border investment into Asia Pacific helped push those markets to all-time highs.

Richard Bloxam, Chief Executive Officer of Capital Markets at JLL, said market participants were placing more weight on data quality and regulatory clarity when deciding where to allocate money.

"Transparency is no longer just a benchmark for market maturity: it's a prerequisite for global capital deployment," Bloxam said.

"In a period of uncertainty, investors are prioritising markets with strong digital infrastructure, robust data disclosure and regulatory clarity. The reforms underway across markets like India, Vietnam and South Korea will help improve operating conditions, narrow the transparency gap with established global hubs and unlock cross-border investment," he said.

Regional shifts

Outside Asia Pacific, several Middle East markets also ranked among the strongest improvers. Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar were highlighted for gains tied to efforts to formalise market structures and attract foreign investment.

National reform programmes helped those markets improve reporting standards and institutional frameworks despite broader geopolitical pressures. JLL pointed to sustained institutionalisation as a factor behind continued international investor interest.

The report suggested transparency is becoming more important as capital sources broaden. Regulatory changes in several markets are drawing in more private wealth, retail money and pension capital, increasing the need for standardised reporting and clearer valuation data.

Alternative assets

The survey also found that transparency gains are increasingly concentrated outside traditional office, retail and logistics property. Alternative sectors such as data centres and infrastructure now account for 20% of direct transaction volumes worldwide, double their share from a decade ago.

That shift is changing the information investors want. In these sectors, data on energy grid capacity, power resilience, operating costs and related regulation is becoming more relevant to investment decisions than conventional rental metrics alone.

Digitisation is another factor reshaping the market. More than 90% of occupiers and investors now use artificial intelligence tools to analyse market fundamentals, making centralised public data and digitised land and planning records more valuable.

Dominic Silman, Chief Economist for LaSalle, said transparency improvements in debt markets and specialist sectors often indicate wider market development.

"Over the last cycle transparency gains have concentrated in debt markets and niche and alternative sectors, which are all gradually approaching the data availability in the traditional sectors," Silman said.

"As transparency in an alternative sector improves, that's often a leading indicator of growing institutionalisation and investment," he said.

The findings point to an uneven but broad-based rise in transparency across global real estate markets, with Asia Pacific and the Middle East driving much of the recent momentum while the most established markets continue to capture the largest share of global capital.