The Chinese are coming: Insurers expected to pour US$73b into overseas properties

2015-12-01
China

The volatility in stock markets will encourage Chinese insurers to speed up investing in overseas properties. Report says 73 billion USD is expected to be spent by these insurers in overseas properties over the next five years. Gateway cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington will be the top target of these acquisitions. In 2014, total property holdings accounts for 0.8%, or 13.4 billion USD, of Chinese insurers' assets under management, and less than half of this amount is estimated to have been spent overseas. However, the recent policy of China Insurance Regulatory Commission since Oct. 2009 permits mainland insurers to allocate as high as 30% of assets under management in real estate markets with half of it in overseas properties. The big gap between insurers' current level of real estate holdings and the regulatory permission also prompts them to accelerate diversifying away to overseas properties. The full article could be read here.

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