Chinese overseas real estate investment hit new record of $33b in 2016

China has hit a record of $33 billion in overseas commercial and residential property investment in 2016, an increase of nearly 53 percent year-on-year, according to JLL’s Global Capital Flows division.

Investments in land, office properties and hotels accounted for 90 percent of all Chinese outbound capital in the last three years. However, hotel and industrial sectors showed the largest increase in 2016 due to significant transactions in the United States in the form of portfolio sales and Chinese appetite for industrial parks.

“Hotel activity last year was boosted by the purchase of Strategic Hotels & Resorts by Anbang Insurance for more than $6 billion,” said David Green-Morgan, JLL’s Global Capital Markets research director, in a statement. “China Life Insurance has secured assets across the hotel and office sectors with portfolio purchases from the Starwood Capital Group and an office tower in Manhattan; sovereign wealth