Chinese institutional investment in U.S. real estate market

Abstract

Followed by huge amounts of small real estate investments from wealthy Chinese individuals, large institutional investors, like well-known insurance companies and developers, also started to step into the U.S. real estate market to make large profit since 2013. Apparently, the strong economy and relatively steady real estate market are the major attractions for both individual and institutional investors all around the world; however, compared with individual investors who care more about return and immigration, Chinese institutional investors focus more from the strategic standpoint especially when the current U.S. real estate market has such relatively high price and possibly would face another round of depression within a few years. This thesis will first look at all transaction details of large-scale real estate investments in major American cities to uncover the similarities and differences in terms of product types and geographic areas. And then, many reasons for the strong investment trend will be discussed on both macro- and micro-level. In addition, through interviews and literature reviews, specific real estate products, strategies, and investment methods will be discussed for each type of institutional investors. Finally, this thesis will compare Chinese institutional real estate investment nowadays with Japanese investors in the 1980s to find out the similarities and differences, and most importantly, what Chinese can learn from Japanese investors' failure and what is a good way to participate in the U.S. real estate market.