Advocacy Talking Points 3 October 2024
Private Markets Webinar Series - Real Estate
Overview
Dive into the world of real estate investments, exploring various strategies and market trends. This session covered the benefits and challenges of investing in real estate, including insights into market cycles, property valuation, and risk management.
- Outlining key considerations for allocating funds to real estate investments
- Providing insights into the market outlook
- Discussing the valuation processes
- Examining the process flow of green building certification
- Exploring how changing demographics and the future of work are influencing future demand and the associated investment returns
Speakers:
- Christine Li, head of research, APAC, Knight Frank
- Dr. Alan Lok, CFA, director, curriculum development, CFA Institute
- Annora Ng, managing director, capital markets, GAW Capital
- William Tan, co-founder, USA Regrowth Fund
Moderator:
- Kenneth Kwong, CFA, INSEAD MBA Graduate
Speakers
Kenneth Kwong, CFA has experience in banking, asset management, and tech scaleups. He received his MBA from INSEAD.
Christine is the Head of Research, APAC at Knight Frank. She has over 15 years of industry experience, helping to shape the long-term business strategy by developing and implementing research initiatives that feed into the research centre of excellence for potential broader application.
She curates and co-ordinates regional forecasts and market outlook for clients across the office, industrial and residential sectors as well as specialist asset classes such as student accommodation, multi-family and data centres. Prior to joining Knight Frank, Christine was the Head of Business Development Services for Southeast Asia, overseeing both the research and marketing resources. She was responsible for managing and delivering real estate and economic research and strategic analysis, with the view of providing research-based perspectives to commercial leasing and investment processes. Her insight and in-depth knowledge of real estate market is also well sought-after by both the local and international media.
Christine began her real estate career as a property correspondent and commentator with Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) where she interviewed key market players from listed company CEOs to top government officials on various property-related issues.
She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from Cornell University (US) and a Master of Arts degree in Media and Communications from University of London (UK).
Dr Lok is responsible for nurturing ethics trainers, producing ethics bite-size media as well as facilitating member societies to promote ethical behavior in their local capital markets. In his role, Dr Lok works with member societies to advance awareness and adoption of CFA Institute ethics and standards, as well as policy positions on ethical conduct and culture related issues. This involves outreach to local stakeholders, including the industry, financial regulator, and the public across the APAC markets. Dr Lok also manages ethics related content and events together with societies leaders as well as facilitating their outreach activities on the Asia-Pacific Research Exchange (ARX) post publication.
Dr Lok joined CFA Institute in February 2014 as the Director of Capital Markets Policy in the Standards & Advocacy Division (APAC) before moving to the role of Director, Society Advocacy Engagement (APAC) in January 2017. In that role, Dr Lok has built up close relationships with society leaders and volunteers in the APAC region. Dr Lok was also responsible for directing the establishment of the Asia-Pacific Research Exchange (ARX). Over the years, he co-authored two monographs on portfolio pumping and market manipulation, submitted numerous regulatory consultation papers, written many blogs & articles and supported the Singapore Society in their Industry Research series in the Singapore Business Times.
During the decade prior to joining CFA Institute, Dr Lok was the senior investment manager of a Chinese solar-energy conglomerate and worked as both a buy and sell-side research analyst in Singapore. Dr Lok also served as the Adjunct head of two modules in Nanyang Technological University (南阳理工学院) as well as the module leaders for various universities in Hong Kong SAR, Mainland China, and Singapore.
Dr Lok graduated with a degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore in 2003. Subsequently, he went on to read his MBA at the University of Manchester in 2013. He obtained the FRM certification from the Global Association of Risk Professionals in 2007 and was subsequently awarded the CFA certification from the CFA Institute in 2008. Dr Lok was recently awarded a doctorate degree from the University of Middlesex, London in 2021. His latest publication was a co-authorship with ACCA entitled “21 Sector Analysis: A Questioning Framework for Investors”.
Annora Ng is a Managing Director at Gaw Capital Partners based in Singapore and is responsible for capital formation, co-investments, separate account investments, investor relations and marketing.
Ms. Ng has over 10 years of experience in real estate investment advisory, including fund formation, acquisitions, recapitalizations and investor relations.
Ms. Ng joined Gaw Capital in 2013 and was based in Hong Kong until 2022 when she relocated to Singapore to help grow the South East Asia business and investor base.
Before joining Gaw Capital, Ms. Ng was a founding member and research analyst at HKGolden50, a Hong Kong based non-profit research institute.
Ms. Ng received her B.A. in Government (International Relations and Comparative Politics) from Dartmouth College.
William Tan has over 15 years of experience in real estate investment, development, and management. As the co-founder of USA Regrowth Funds, he has played a key role in transforming underperforming assets into high-quality turnkey properties.
William is involved in managing investor relationships and devising investment strategies. His work also includes conducting due diligence, market research, feasibility studies, project investment analysis and financial modeling, as well as optimizing the fund's debt maturity profile.
Before transitioning to real estate, William gained valuable experience in the private equity investment and buyouts industry. He previously worked in technology consulting and has a strong interest with automation and the exciting future possibilities emerging from the AI Spring.