(ECNS) - Chinese investors have been increasingly withdrawing from overseas real estate markets in recent years following tightened loan policies, said a report by global real-estate services company Cushman & Wakefield.
Its 2019 China Outbound Real Estate Investor Intention Survey cites data from Real Capital Analytics, saying Chinese investors acquired a total of $15.7 billion worth of overseas real estate in 2018, down 63 percent from 2017.
More than $12 billion in Chinese-owned overseas assets were put up for sale in 2018, including $3.1 billion in the United States, according to the report.
Dalian Wanda Group and Hainan Airlines were among Chinese business giants to sell overseas real estate assets, including some hotels and office buildings.
With a yearly total investment at $9.5 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 20 percent, Hong Kong remained the main destination for overseas real estate investment by mainlanders, followed by the United States and Australia, at $2.3 billion and $1.3 billion, respectively.
The report mentioned that restrictions on foreign real estate investment and tightening of lending in the sector will continue in the near future, so China’s overseas real estate investments will remain at a low and stable growth.
It reported that 65 percent of respondents to a survey said their outbound investments were affected by domestic restrictions, a sharp increase from 57 percent in 2017. Only 18 percent said they thought controls over real-estate financing will ease this year.
James Shepherd, managing director of research at Cushman & Wakefield Greater China, said domestic banks are expected to maintain a tightened credit policy for the property market this year, and that this will limit real-estate investment in other countries. At the same time, more investors will put their property assets up for sale, including in China.
