Mainland investors snap up overseas real estate

The exponentially expanding appetite of Chinese mainland capital for international real estate assets reached a record high in 2016 - and is likely to continue to play a significant role in the global property market in the next few years - although more domestic capital may look at opportunities on the mainland in 2017, a leading real estate services providers said.

Research by Jones Lang LaSalle found that Chinese mainland's outbound investment last year in commercial and residential properties surged 53 percent from 2015, hitting $33 billion.

The report said that over the past three years investments in land, office buildings and hotels accounted for 90 percent of the overall outbound property investments.