Brazilian cities 'transparent', as Poland catches up with West

GLOBAL - A 97-market biennial transparency index published by Jones Lang Lasalle claims the Polish market is now as transparent as its Western European counterparts, and deems Brazil's first-tier cities the first transparent category in Latin America.

According to the index, there is now little difference in terms of transparency between core CEE markets and Western Europe.

Meanwhile, transparency in Brazil's major cities is comparable with Hungary and Portugal.

The index measures improvement based on 83 factors in categories including performance management, market fundamentals, governance of listed vehicles, regulation and the transaction process.

Economic recovery renewed progress towards transparency after a lull in 2008-09, according to the index.

Specifically, cross-border activity spurred improvements in emerging economies as international competition opened up local real estate markets.

The report said inward investment has proved "a powerful incentive for encouraging the free flow of information, as well as the fair and consistent application of local property laws".

It pointed out that the greatest improvements - in Brazil and Turkey - correlated with the fastest growing real estate investment markets.

Australia, the UK and the US remain the most transparent markets.

Yet Turkey posted the most improvement in an upward trajectory, shared by fellow MIST markets Mexico, Indonesia and South Korea.

Although markets in Africa, the Middle East and much of Latin America (excluding Mexico) remain opaque, 90% of all real estate markets showed some improvement over the past two years.

Global research national director Jeremy Kelly forecast that improvements over the next two years would be driven by government crackdowns on corruption, and closer monitoring of lenders in Europe and recognition in emerging markets that inadequate information is hindering inward investment.

At the same time, Kelly said sustainability's shift from "a marginal criterion to a critical decision-making input" would at the same time force greater transparency in green benchmarking.