Foreign institutional investment in China's real estate market

Abstract

The Chinese real estate market has been growing rapidly over the past decade and has become a popular destination for foreign institutional investors (FIls) including both the public and private entities such as sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, equity funds, banks and insurance firms. An increasing interest from global investors has been observed recently. The total property transaction volume of foreign institutional investment in mainland China set a new yearly record in 2018 and a new quarterly record in the first quarter of 2019. The main objective of this study is to identify the investor universe and the investment patterns of different types of FlIs in China's real estate market. Thorough analysis of the actual transaction data is performed to understand the investment behaviors and preferences in each major property sector including office, retail, industrial, apartment, hotel and site development. Company profiles and a few selected cases formost active investors in the market are reviewed to analyze the investment strategies. This research finds that institutions from the United States and Singapore have dominated the foreign investment field. Equity funds and investment managers are the most active players among all types of FIls. While the office sector is the most popular type, prime retail assets also have a few loyal followers. The development site lost it attractiveness but the industrial and the rental apartment sectors received tremendous attention in recent years. Following their investment guidelines, FIls demonstrate different risk tolerances by the investor type and also adopt various investment strategies for different property types. The study also provides analysis of future investment trends in the selected promising sectors and regions. The investment risks are assessed for FIIs who have been or will be in the Chinese real estate market.