China might overtake Japan as the second-largest real estate market in the world after the United States by as early as next year, a leading international real estate information services provider predicted Thursday.
"In 2009, DTZ's two strongest markets which bucked the trend of continuing declines in real estate transaction volumes were the UK and Asia Pacific," said Paul Idzik, group chief executive officer of DTZ.
"Indeed, led by China, the Asia-Pacific region delivered strong revenue growth and our decision during the year to extend our investment management business to the region is a clear sign of our confidence in that market."
To cope with growing demand, DTZ, which entered the China market in 1993, plans to increase the number of its fully-fledged offices to around 20 in about one year from its current portfolio of 17, said Edward Cheung, chief executive officer of DTZ China.
