China’s love affair with US property is far from over

The slowdown in China's economy hasn't stopped Chinese investment in US real estate. By Dec 16th 2015, Chinese people injected $4.4 billion to Manhattan real estate, a tremendous increase compared to the $645 million investment in 2014. Experts believe that diversification and interest rates are major factors behind this. Since 2012, Chinese regulators have been gradually loosening rules and now allow insurers to invest up to 30% of their total assets in overseas real estate. Exchange rate is another reason. In order for China to keep its interest rate low, it has to allow further depreciation in the next 15 months, according to Andrew Polk, an economist based in Beijing. Chinese investors are now reaching out to smaller US cities, such as Houston which outperformed Chicago and Los Angeles and secured $140 million investment from China in 2015. Commercial Observer has the full article.