Retail sales across the Asia-Pacific region remained strong during the first quarter of this year, thanks to buoyant tourism, steady income growth and positive labour market.

According to Cushman & Wakefield's Asia-Pacific Retail MarketBeat report, several countries in the region, including Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and China - reported solid growth. On the other hand, Australia and South Korea experienced moderate increase.

Overall, retail growth in the region is attributed to healthy consumer demand and the continuous expansion of major retailers in the Asia Pacific.

"The region remains a hotbed of construction activity in most markets," said Sigrid Zialcita, Asia Pacific Managing Director for Research at C&W, citing Tier 1 cities in China, Seoul, Jakarta, and Tokyo as leading retail construction sites.

"This is a clear indication that the region has been steadily carrying on positive retail demands, however, retail investment has started on a slow note and progress is marked with caution."

Meanwhile, Arshpreet Chaudrey, Executive Managing Director South East Asia at C&W, noted that the "change in household income levels between 2010 and 2020 will be over 200 percent in India and 125 percent in China on a purchasing power parity basis."

"When you couple this phenomenon with the fact that the share of disposable income to overall household income is rising in Asia faster than anywhere else in the world, clearly retail sales will do well. Major retail centres across Asia will continue to perform well."

In general, the economy of the Asia-Pacific region will continue to experience steady growth, and this will sustain the retail market. Although, uncertainty of the euro-zone debt crisis looms over the region, C&W forecasts that its retail sector will remain stable in such a way that it will be able to support its overall retail development.

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