Chinese real estate investment in US declines by 55%

Chinese investment in US commercial real estate in 2017 plunged an estimated 55 percent from 2016, according to a report, but participants in the sector still expect Chinese capital to be a factor in the US.

The 2017 China-US Inbound Investment Capital Watch report from real estate company Cushman & Wakefield put the estimated decline at $7.3 billion in 2017 from $16.2 billion in 2016.

Cushman & Wakefield said the slump was largely the result of stricter capital controls and regulations from the mainland. The Chinese government implemented the controls to better "regulate and manage outbound investment flows," David Bitner, Cushman & Wakefield's head of capital market research, said in an interview Thursday.