Asthoughts and realities of higher interest rates in key markets across the globe (namely the United States and Europe) dominated the headlines in May, both global and Asia Pacific property stocks had a tough month, with REITs generally performing better than developers. For the month, global and Asia Pacific property stocks returned –1.2 percent and –4.0 percent, respectively. While monthly performance was weak, the fundamentals in the Asia Pacific region remain good relative to other global regions, and government policy measures remain supportive, as suggested by regional returns of 8.4 percent, which year-to-date through May is substantially ahead of both global real estate returns of 1.9 percent and global equity returns of 5.4 percent (as represented by the MSCI ACWI Index). Of note, in broad terms across the region and in concert with global property stocks, REIT performance has lagged for the year as investors continued an earlier theme of generally focusing