Expect More Chinese Outbound Investment in Commercial Real Estate Says APREA Chief

While there have been many stories about the individual Chinese investors buying luxury homes in overseas markets such as Hong Kong, Singapore, London or the US, at least one expert expects more investment from Chinese companies in to commercial real estate outside of their home country.

Speaking at a real estate investment conference in New York, Peter Mitchell, CEO of the Asia Pacific Real Estate Association (APREA) said that signs of Chinese interest in investing outside the country are already cropping up with the emergence of companies that are licensed to invest abroad.

Mitchell noted that, “I think the Chinese government has been quite concerned to hose down the scale of investment to avoid too much of a bubble. Everyone is talking about a hard landing or a soft landing, but certainly there’s a lot of pressure and a lot of keenness on the part of the Chinese government to Chinese investors to actually look for opportunities offshore and deploy capital offshore.”

While Chinese institutional investors have been cautious about overseas investment to date, the potential for bargain-hunting in US and European markets, as well as the prestige of owning property internationally is luring more companies into the global commercial real estate markets.