Emerging Trends in Real Estate Asia Pacific 2008, published by PwC and the Washington DC-based Urban Land Institute, is based on interviews with and surveys of more than 190 professionals, including investors, developers, property company represen- tatives, lenders, brokers and consultants.

Providing an insight into property investment and development trends, property finance and capital markets and different trends in different sectors and metropolitan areas, 20 markets are included in the report.

"It is expected that even greater amounts of capital, including from Ireland, will be flooding Asia Pacific real estate markets in 2008, " said Enda Faughnan of PwC Ireland Real Estate Practice. "The real challenge for investors will lie in finding the right assets against the backdrop of yield compression and scrutiny by regional governments and tax authorities."

The report found that Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo were the cities that were most popular with the investment community.

Shanghai edged up from its secondplace ranking last year in the investment stakes, . The majority of those surveyed recommended investing in the industrial and distribution property sectors.

Singapore was highlighted as "a very stable legal and tax environment, and property rights that are beyond question". The best options here were buying in the residential and rental sector.

Tokyo was also cited as presenting very low overall risk as an investment market and was seen to have a tight inventory supply and low vacancy rates.