There is nothing that markets like less than uncertainty, so the thinking goes. But these are undoubtedly unsure times. A cluster of new leaders has recently taken the helm in Asia, many of them attempting ambitious programmes of reform. And it is anything but clear whether those efforts will be a blessing or a curse.

Those efforts promise to propel the property industry in those individual markets and aid the development of Asia as a whole. Japan’s huge programme of asset purchases and easy money may well revitalise what is still the world’s third-largest economy. But failure could see big-money investors lose faith in the region at a time they are expected to be boosting allocations to an underrepresented part of the world, in terms of real estate portfolios.

The stakes are high. The regional powerhouses, China and Japan, have both recently welcomed in nationalistic heads of state who are bidding to free their economies from their inefficient, hidebound ways —