Chinese investors continue to focus on gateway markets in 2016

Chinese investors will continue to be interested in the real estate sector of traditional gateway markets in 2016, a research from international real estate service provider Knight Frank showed on Monday.

But the advent of the "Belt and Road" policy will lead more institutional investors to focus on economies that have close geographic and economic ties with China. And beneficiaries include Hong Kong, ASEAN countries and India, according to research.

David Ji, Director and Head of Research and Consultancy of Knight Frank, said in contrast to some predictions, the growth of Chinese outbound in 2016 will be strong despite the ups and downs of the domestic economy. And the availability of quality stock has significant impact on the short- to mid-term investment decisions.

Going forward, as Chinese capital outflow increases with policy support such as "Belt and Road" and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, as well as China's trade and financial initiatives, capital outflow will become increasingly sustainable. This means ample opportunities for gateway markets and key regional hubs.

Global gateways, such as London, New York and Sydney continue to attract the bulk of Chinese overseas real estate investment in 2015. The insurance giants in particular, continue to splash out on trophy properties. There has been significantly increased investment in US commercial real estate, making it the fastest growing mature market. Meanwhile strong growth in Australia continues unabated while investment in the UK is on par with that of 2014.