February 10 was the start of the Lunar New Year, celebrated throughout Asia, Southeast Asia, and beyond. In this blog, we’re sharing our ‘auspicious’ outlook on the year, as well as highlights on relocation activity in the region and trends and expectations for 2024. This year marks the arrival of the Dragon, more specifically of the Wood Dragon, which by many is considered one of the luckiest and most powerful animals in the Chinese zodiac. The Wood Dragon is said to embody Luck, Strength, Intelligence, and Energy – all factors that we are hoping to take good advantage of this year at Dwellworks.
According to the Chinese zodiac, the Year of the Dragon is forecast to be a time of rapid growth and transformation. With the unpredictability that dragons are generally known for, the landscape is supposed to be rich with exciting changes and opportunities, which will hopefully also be reflected in the world of mobility. Even if one does not subscribe to the interpretations of the zodiac, there are certainly a number of industry indicators suggesting a dynamic year ahead. The market is showing encouraging signs of a full rebound of move activity to pre-pandemic numbers – albeit in somewhat changed circumstances and with different services required. From what we have experienced already, we see a promising pattern - as was the case with Europe in 2022, when borders opened post pandemic, we saw leisure travel flourish again in APAC in 2023, and also expect business travel and relocation to be on the upswing in 2024.
Last year, Dwellworks’ corporate housing business, Dwellworks Living, experienced a 13% revenue growth in our temporary living bookings, based both on increased volume and longer stays. Singapore remains the most active business travel and relocation destination in Asia but travel to Japan, Seoul, and Bangkok also increased significantly in 2023 and Hong Kong is now experiencing a steady return to travel activity.
Australia has seen consistent inbound relocation activity, especially in destinations like Melbourne, the country’s tech hub, and also Perth and Western Australia, where energy investment continues to spur growth in short and long-term assignments.
As noted in the Dwellworks Living corporate housing market update for Q1, even with more bookings in the APAC market overall, the average daily rates for temporary living have remained stable. Supply and demand are largely in balance, even in Singapore, where new construction as well as a tapering in demand, have flattened out the inflationary pricing of the past few years.
Overall, in APAC, as is the trend globally, long-term assignments and traditional destination services requirements continue their shift to more support for short-term assignments, extended business travel and commuters – with the employee traveling as needed to business sites, while based in a regional hub such as Hong Kong or Singapore.
India, with its expected 6.2% growth in GDP this year, is the world’s hottest major economy and remains a high-volume market for training and short-term housing needs. Activity in each major hub here is tied to the respective industry sector/corporate client presence, and so the trends per city change from year to year. Bookings in Bengaluru and Chennai among our clients have decreased for early 2024, for example, while Hyderabad requests for housing services and support are on the rise. Overall, the trend across India is continued demand and we are expanding our network in response. For more regional insights, read our Dwellworks Living blog on India.
With the increase in relocation and business-related travel, we are also seeing an increase in demand for local billing solutions from our clients. For several years now Dwellworks Living has been working with a network of trusted local partners in India to facilitate direct billing solutions and invoicing in INR. Our team has been able to expand this solution to a number of new accounts in the last year.
The Chinese economy is recovering slowly from the pandemic and other geopolitical influences. The sheer size of the economy means even incremental growth has a significant regional and global impact. However, international flights to China have built back to 62% of their 2019 capacity, and the Chinese government has approved less stringent visa requirements in partnership with over 90 countries worldwide. More relaxed visa terms with the US are expected in 2024.
The Chinese government also recently announced that the number of foreign nationals residing in China has rebounded to 85% of the level it was at the end of 2019, with a total of 711,000 residency permits issued to foreign nationals in 2023. While these are encouraging statistics, overall demand for inbound mobility services to China remains lower than in previous years. We attribute this in part to an increase in the population of employees transferred from locations and by corporations that do not commonly utilize corporate mobility support services. We have also witnessed an increase in flexible accommodation needs in China, related to extended business travel, with many corporate travelers opting for prolonged temporary accommodation stays at high-quality serviced apartments.
As businesses and mobility build back in China, we’re here to help with the country’s complex payment and tax structures. China may be the world’s second-largest economy, but the serviced apartment infrastructure is still local and relationship-based, when compared to markets like Singapore, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, with their more global outlook.
To support our clients with housing needs in China, in 2019 Dwellworks secured a full real estate and property management license as a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise (WFOE). Amongst the advantages of the WFOE license, we have the ability to bill in international and local currencies along with the capability to issue Special Fapiaos. Read our blog for a full description of our Fapiao capabilities and the value of making payments in China.
We are happy to report that Dwellworks now offers destination services in Singapore. With our existing capabilities and presence in Singapore, destination services are a natural extension for our talented team. We’ve onboarded and trained our Destination Consultants and are aligned with trusted local experts to extend real estate, transportation, and other local support services. We are ‘Open for Business’ to support destination services needs in this essential market and provide continuity between short and long-term housing needs for transferring employees and families.
Contact us to learn more about our expert travel and mobility services in Asia Pacific.
With our best wishes for a Happy Year of the Dragon and Gong Xi Fa Cai.
Dwellworks is the world’s largest provider of destination-related services and temporary living solutions for the globally mobile workforce and business travelers. We provide business-to-business solutions for Fortune 1000 and emerging companies directly and through their relocation management partners. Whether a company needs to relocate its employees across the world or the country, we provide a range of support services to help employees and their families transition successfully from their home location to a new destination.
Dwellworks operates according to our core values of Integrity, Teamwork, Performance, Innovation, and Fun. These are the root of everything we do – from the Teamwork aspect of sourcing and supporting our helpful local Consultants to assist any relocating employee in hundreds of cities worldwide with their move, to the Integrity of our highly-trained Intercultural experts who are here to help transferees adjust to new cultures and confidently settle into their destination locations, to the Innovation of our myDwellworks technology platform that familiarizes employees on assignment with their destination and enables customized conversations on properties, schools, and situation-specific needs.
Dwellworks supports the diversity of our clients’ globally mobile workforce with personalized destination solutions in 16 countries, covering major relocation markets. Dwellworks has consistently responded to the mobility services and needs of our global clients. In 2020, Dwellworks launched Dwellworks Living to expand our original portfolio of corporate housing markets into a full-service corporate housing operation, offering alternative accommodations for relocation and business travel customers in 125 countries. In 2023, we launched Dwellworks Move, providing both destination services and corporate housing to small and medium-sized businesses. Our full-service real estate brokerage, Station Cities, supports home rentals, sales, and purchases in the Tri-State New York area and Chicago. Visit our homepage, learn about our services, and read our blogs to learn how we can help with your relocation and business travel needs.