Developers still seem keen on outbound investment

When Vantone entered the Taiwan market in 2011, it chose to work with a major local developer that has more than 30 years of experience.

"Last year, we received in vitations to cooperate with 35 local real estate firms to develop projects together," said Wang.

Of all Chinese residential property developers seeking an overseas expansion, Shanghai-based Greenland Holding Group Co has been the most active, with purchases of the Ram Brewery and Hertsmere House sites in London, together with sites in Los Angeles and Sydney.

In March, Greenland Group announced a 67,000 square meter Toronto project as its latest overseas real estate acquisition that will cost $360million. It's also announced deals in Australia, Malaysia, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, the UK and the US.The majority of these deals have been signed with in the last 12 months.

David Green Morgan, global capital markets research director at JLL, said that limited land in a few favored overseas cities kept many potential Chinese buyers from making actual purchases.

"There is enormous demand (in China).Many Chinese investors are looking for purchase targets. What holds them back is lack of free space," he said.

While Chinese outbound investment in real estate continues to be spread across the globe, most of the deals in the past quarter still took place in larger, gateway cities such as London, Sydney, Los Angeles and Chicago, according to JLL.

"My experience with my clients showed that they are good at doing homework. They were cautious in making decisions.

"But once they decided' this is a good project with good profitability prospects',they would pay whatever price the market demanded," Green Morgan said.

The return rate on these investments is not clear yet, as it takes years to build properties on purchased land. But he said there's a strong demand for apartments in cities such as London and New York, and prices there grew fast last year.