Global Demographics 2009: Shaping Real Estate’s Future explores how demographic trends are affecting real estate investment and development decisions worldwide. The publication, the second in an annual series from the Urban Land Institute, examines major factors that affect land use, namely population growth, urbanization, aging and migration.

Some of the book’s highlights include:

* The greatest population increases worldwide in the next 40 years will occur in China, India and the United States.
* The population of Europe will decline between now and 2030.
* Mature but still growing economies, including the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, will offer attractive real estate investment and development prospects once the recession subsides.
* The developed world’s large workforce is aging rapidly while the young labor pools in the Middle East, Africa and South Africa are expanding.
* Fertility rates have dropped globally, even in developing countries.

The report states that demographics are the foundation of real estate decision-making. Population, household and income characteristics, along with the direction of future trends, determine whether demand will exist for new housing or retail space. Growth in the labor force and its composition strongly influence the success of office and industrial properties.

http://www.realestateindustrywatch.com/book-describes-impact-of-global-demographics-on-real-estate%E2%80%99s-future/

brought by Moishe Alexander, CFC Canadian Funding Corp CEO

GlaxoSmithKline Opens Singapore Biologics Vaccine Plant, Creates Endowment Fund

GlaxoSmithKline this week opened a S$600 million ($414 million) vaccine plant in Singapore’s Tuas Business Park, in the Asian country’s western section. The plant will begin production of GSK’s pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, designed to combat meningitis, pneumonia, and blood poisoning, in 2011 following audits from the US Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization.

The new 85,000-square-meter (914,932-square-foot) plant will employ about 200 people, and grow GSK’s Singapore workforce, which now totals 1,000 employees. Company vice president Emmanuel Amory told In-Pharmatechnologist.com that Singapore had been chosen as the site for GSK’s first vaccine plant in Asia due to what he called its highly skilled local workforce, following a decade-long plan by the government to boost expertise in biologics.

Another possible factor is the country’s lower labor costs for manufacturing than the US, Canada, or Europe. Data issued April 1 by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics concluded that as of 2007, the hourly compensation for manufacturing employees in Singapore was half that of their American counterparts.

During the June 9 opening ceremony, GSK CEO Andrew Witty called the plant “possibly the best vaccine facility anywhere in the world,” while Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said it marked a significant victory for the republic, which has sought to dominate drug manufacturing within Asia, the Straits Times reported.

At the event, GSK announced that it was setting up a S$30 million endowment fund for graduate studies in sustainable manufacturing processes, green chemistry, and health policies. The prime minister said Singapore would chip in another $20 million to the fund, which he termed a symbol of cooperation between GSK and Singapore.

Reviewed by Moishe Alexander, CFC CEO

http://www.genomeweb.com/bioregionnews/bioregion-real-estate-11