Chinese money seeks US properties

Chinese interest in US commercial property is back, and this time Chinese investors may become significant players as the nation devises a vehicle to divert large amounts of funds for foreign investment, a Cushman & Wakefield executive has said.

Flush with dollars from a huge trade surplus, the Chinese sovereign wealth fund is beginning to test the waters in New York real estate, said Scott Latham, executive vice-president of capital markets group for real estate services company Cushman & Wakefield.

"They are coming. We've seen them in the bidding process over the past four months on a number of assets we've handled," Latham said at the Reuters Global Real Estate Summit in New York.