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Insurers in China have $14 billion to spend on real estate.

According to CBRE, Chinese insurance funds have $14.4 billion in the bank to invest on foreign real estate.

According to the consultancy, "high openness markets" such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia are supposed to be among the main targets. apartment for sale in qatar

"Given the current shortage of investable prime properties in first-tier Chinese cities and the short-term danger from oversupply in second- and third-tier Chinese cities, prime high-end office properties in core international cities are expected to be highly sought after," according to CBRE.

According to CBRE, China institutional investors are still "relative newcomers" to foreign real estate transactions. Institutional investors, on the other hand, have increased their overseas investments in recent years, owing to "limited investment outlets in China, ample liquidity, RMB appreciation, and the relatively lower valuation of overseas assets in the years following the 2008 financial crisis."

CBRE's calculations are based on new legislation that enable financial institutions to spend up to 15% of their assets in "non-self-use" real estate. According to CBRE, insurers' overall assets were $1.2 trillion in 2012, leaving $180 billion available for real estate investment. CBRE arrived at the $14.4 billion figure based on historical investment trends and an 80:20 split between domestic and foreign investments.

According to Marc Giuffrida, CBRE's executive director of global capital markets, "Chinese insurance institutions are already well founded in domestic markets, but following a series of government policy changes, they will look to enter overseas commercial real estate markets." "The insurance industry, in particular, is thriving; bolstered by ever-increasing funds, they will target gateway cities around the world in increasingly large quantities, including London, New York, Toronto, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Sydney."

While Chinese insurance companies' allocations to foreign property are poor, Mr. Giuffrida believes that "even with a modest increase in allocations given the capital base, the flows could be very significant."

According to CBRE, Chinese insurance companies were not allowed to invest in real estate until 2009.

The Chinese are the most active buyers of new homes in London.

According to a recent study from Savills, buyers from Hong Kong and China were the largest group of new home buyers in prime London last year, accounting for 27 percent of the market by volume.

According to the consultancy, Chinese buyers dominate the new apartment market, preferring high-rise, contemporary buildings in waterfront locations.

In the paper, Savills director of residential research Yolande Barnes says, "There were initially two distinct groups investing in London, the existing Hong Kong ultra-high net worths and the new wealthy mainland Chinese." "As the number of Chinese buyers in London increases, the market is expanding to include a wider variety of Chinese mainlanders as well as more Hong Kong residents."

According to Savills, the bulk of buyers are from Hong Kong, with mainland Chinese buyers barred from making overseas investments. Many of the new homes purchased in prime locations are for Chinese families with children attending schools in the United Kingdom.

In the current home market, Chinese buyers have been less interested. When existing home purchases are taken into account, Western Europeans make up the largest group of international buyers in London, accounting for 13.6 percent of the total residential market. Although housing markets in the United States and Canada rebound from the financial crisis, North American buyers account for just 3.3 percent of all prime London sales. With just 0.1 percent of buyers in the overall industry, Latin America is the only area that is underrepresented in London's prime markets.

According to a Knight Frank study released last month, London's prime home prices were 60 percent higher than their post-crisis low in 2009.

The Savills research, on the other hand, refutes recent news stories alleging that London's housing market is being flooded by the world's super-rich, who are merely investing in properties they will never use.

"Far from being 'buy to quit' investors, most overseas buyers in London live and work in the United Kingdom," according to Ms. Barnes' study.

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