CHINA'S outbound investment in commercial real estate jumped one third last year from 2011, a major international real estate services reported today.
And this trend is going to continue this year, Jones Lang LaSalle predicts.
Money flowing out of China into direct real estate investment overseas totaled US$4 billion in 2012, a year- on-year rise of 33 percent, Jones Lang LaSalle said.
For 2013, the company expects the figure to increase 25 percent to US$5 billion.
This follows a strong first quarter which already saw Chinese investors allocate US$1 billion to overseas real estate.
"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," said Arthur de Haast, head of the international capital group at Jones Lang LaSalle.
"Our forecast is that China, and the Asia-Pacific region as a whole, will see this trend continue over the next 20 years."
In the last decade real estate investment opportunities outside of China (cross-border) have increasingly attracted Chinese capital.
In 2003, only 2 percent of all Chinese capital invested in real estate went overseas. By 2012 this figure had already risen to 26 percent, Jones Lang LaSalle data showed.