China’s foreign commercial property investment ‘to rise for 20 years’

China's investment in offshore commercial property has risen by one-third in a year – and will keep growing for 20 years, it is predicted.

Global agent Jones Lang LaSalle predicts that after strong first quarter results, the total for 2013 will rise 20% to US$5billion.

In 2012, Chinese capital invested in overseas commercial property reached US$4billion, up 33% on 2011, shows new data from the agent.

And in the first three months of 2013, Chinese investors put US$1 billion into overseas real estate.

Arthur de Haast, Jones Lang LaSalle head of the international capital group, says, "China has always had the potential to be a major source of capital for real estate investment globally, and in the last few years we have really seen this market gather pace.

“Our forecast is that China, and the Asia-Pacific region as a whole, will see this trend continue over the next 20 years,” reports the ShangahiDaily.com website.

But Chinese purchases are still heavily concentrated in a handful of markets—Hong Kong, Singapore, London, New York, San Francisco and Sydney.

Mr De Hasst told the Wall Street Journals that Chinese developers are increasingly interested in Europe, but its densely built cities and tight planning rules make it difficult to find suitable sites.

"They like to do large-scale developments, and in Europe the development opportunities are small scale. That cramps their style a bit. They will undoubtedly have more success in the U.S."
In 2003, just 2% of all Chinese capital invested in real estate went overseas. By 2012 this jumped to 26%, the firm's data showed.