Chinese investors can’t seem to be getting enough of commercial real estate

Chinese investors can’t seem to be getting enough of commercial real estate abroad – having already spent $1 billion in the first quarter on buying property, they are now on track to spend a whopping $5 billion for the whole year, according property services firm Jones Lang LaSalle.

If Chinese outbound investment in commercial property did hit $5 billion, as forecast, it will catapult the group to among the five biggest cross-border investors in this sector globally, according to Jones Lang LaSalle.

Money flowing out of China into buying commercial real estate overseas reached $4 billion in 2012, according to Jones Lang LaSalle, which is 33 percent higher than in 2011.

The firm says Chinese investments have been growing in the top five “super cities” of Hong Kong, New York, London, Singapore and Sydney. The first three cities have seen investments of almost $2 billion to $3 billion between 2003 and 2012.

Green-Morgan said Chinese individual investors are mainly interested in the industrial and hotel space in these cities, while he’s also seeing a lot of demand from companies.

Another reason for the huge Chinese interest in commercial property is because it’s become easier for investors to take money out of China now, according to Green-Morgan.

According to Reuters, last month a group of Chinese investors including Zhang Xin, the chief executive of commercial real estate developer Soho China, was in talks to buy a 40 percent stake in the iconic General Motors building in Manhattan, New York, in a $3.4 billion deal – making it the most valuable office building in the U.S.

Source CNBC