Launched this morning by YAB Dato’ Sri Haji Fadillah Bin Haji Yusof, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy Transition & Water Transformation (PETRA), the ASEAN Real Estate Conference (AREC) 2025 officially opens as a flagship component of ARCHIDEX 2025. Held under Malaysia’s ASEAN Chairmanship and in collaboration with the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT), PAM, and C.I.S, AREC is a powerful convergence of vision, policy and innovation.

Building on the outcomes of the ASEAN – China Ministerial Roundtable on Construction and Housing (AMROCH) held in Kuala Lumpur in 2024, with the theme “The Real Estate Renaissance: Innovate, Integrate, Impact,” AREC 2025 is designed as a comprehensive platform comprising a high-level Forum, a dedicated Exhibition, and strategic Business Matching sessions. It will further explore emerging trends and technologies, and leveraging innovative tools to guide the industry towards sustainable and inclusive development, ensuring that growth benefits all stakeholders while minimising environmental harm. It brings together housing ministers, city mayors, developers, investors and sustainability leaders from across Southeast Asia, China and Timor Leste, fostering shared knowledge and collaborative strategies for affordable housing, climate-resilient infrastructure and smart urban development.

Among the objectives of AREC 2025 are to provide a platform for industry players to showcase new and emerging real estate innovations and ignite investment opportunities, to enable knowledge and technology exchanges and foster greater collaboration among industry professionals and policymakers on sustainable and inclusive real estate development strategies, and to showcase real estate best practices from ASEAN and beyond.

Strategically located at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC), AREC transforms the exhibition space into a living blueprint of regional aspirations. The event features a specially designed “Merdeka to Madani” concept linkway, culminating in the FIABCI Wall of Fame, celebrating global excellence in real estate.

As part of ARCHIDEX’s dual-venue format, AREC aligns policy discourse with the innovation showcased across the broader exhibition. While ARCHIDEX leads as Asia’s premier platform for architecture and the built environment, AREC embeds regional policy priorities into the design and development conversation, where ideas become actionable outcomes. The AREC Exhibition 2025 will feature ASEAN Real Estate Exhibition booths, held concurrently with ARCHIDEX 2025. This platform provides an opportunity for industry players to showcase new and emerging real estate innovations and to ignite investment opportunities aligned with ASEAN’s sustainability and growth aspirations.

The forum is more than dialogue. The AREC Forum is a regional platform featuring regional and global experts as speakers. Invitations are extended to industry players, academics, and NGOs from ASEAN member states and partners, including China, to strengthen sustainable urban development. It is a launchpad for solutions – from green mobility to ESG frameworks and cross-border housing collaboration. The business matching component further translates these conversations into partnerships, investment, and measurable impact across ASEAN’s urban fabric.

Malaysia is proud to lead this transformative platform, reaffirming its commitment to sustainable urbanisation, regional collaboration, and inclusive growth. Through AREC, the nation positions itself not only as a convener of strategic dialogue but as ASEAN’s real estate gateway, connecting trade, innovation, and policymaking at scale.

Together, AREC and ARCHIDEX 2025 represent the future of the built environment in Asia, one that is bold, resilient, and centered on people and planet. Let this be the moment where shared vision meets shared action and where we begin building tomorrow, together.