Canada assumed more weight in the MSCI global property index last year as it posted a USD $57 billion year-over-year increase in the value of its professionally managed real estate market. That contributed to an 8.5 per cent or USD $900 billion expansion in overall market size in 2021 across 37 markets MSCI analyzed.
A recent MSCI report shows that the United States, United Kingdom and China drove much of that growth, followed by Canada and Australia . With the value of its professionally managed inventory pegged at USD $421 billion, Canada retained its standing as the seventh largest market in the survey, while increasing its weighting from 4 per cent to 4.3 per cent of the value of the MSCI global property index. That represented the second largest net positive shift among the 27 markets in the index after the U.S. gain of 162 basis points (bps).
Already firmly entrenched as the largest market, the U.S. registered a USD $466.3 billion uptick last year, to surpass USD $4.1 trillion in market size and bump its overall weight in the MSCI global index up to 41.6 per cent. The U.K., Australia, Norway, New Zealand and Denmark also increased their weighting in the global index.
The U.K. nudged up from 8.4 to 8.6 per cent of the total weight of the index after a USD $82 billion increase pushed its market size above USD $850 billion. Meanwhile, China, which MSCI assesses separately with six other South Asian markets, saw a USD $123 billion increase in market size for the year.
On the flipside, South Africa and Singapore saw the overall value of their professionally managed real estate markets shrink in 2021. Japan’s total market value of USD $947 billion — up by USD $7.2 billion from 2020 — continues to carry the second largest weight in the global index, but it fell from 10.3 per cent in 2020 to 9.6 per cent in 2021. That negative 72-bps was the most marked downward dip among index participants, but Germany and France also experience negative shifts of 30 bps, with Germany’s weight falling to 7.2 per cent and France’s slipping to 5.2 per cent.
“Almost all European markets, except for United Kingdom, Norway and Denmark, witnessed a drop in weights in the MSCI Global Annual Property Index due to the weakening of the Euro against the USD in 2021,” the report states.
