Overseas real estate investment hits record $7.5b in Q1

A real estate agent puts up a "sold" sign in front of a house in Toronto, April 20, 2010. [Photo/IC]

Chinese companies invested a record $7.5 billion in the overseas commercial and residential real estate market in the first quarter of this year. The global real estate service company JLL also reported that transactions in 2015 are expected to hit $20 billion.

Last year, Chinese investors spent a record $17 billion on overseas real estate in the commercial and residential sectors - an increase of 21.4 percent compared to 2013. That was the year that Chinese companies spent more on overseas commercial real estate than on the domestic market.

While the domestic sector for commercial and residential property slowed last year, overseas investment by Chinese companies reached 52 percent of all real estate transactions, according to JLL.

As for the first quarter, JLL did not provide a breakdown of commercial and residential data or global hot spots. Previous data showed commercial properties, such as offices and hotels, were favorite investments, while the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States were popular locations.

"We expect substantial transactions will materialize in the second half of the year and this will be reflected in the final quarter's data," Darren Xia, head of International Capital Group, China, a unit of JLL, said.

This will be fueled by Chinese companies' preference toward commercial assets in developed economies. Demand has also being boosted by the yuan's strength against the UK pound and the Australian dollar as well as the slowdown in the domestic property market.