The Number

2.1 billion dollars

Property firms have quickened their pace of offshore expansion to meet the appetite of Chinese consumers and find new opportunities beyond the tepid domestic property market. In the first quarter of 2014, institutional investors' offshore property investments rose 25 percent year-on-year to $2.1 billion, while the sum going to residential property grew by 80 percent, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Inc, a global real estate services and investment management company.