Asian investors are buying U.S. commercial real estate at a record pace, pushing real-estate values higher and helping get stalled projects off the ground.
Equity investments in the U.S. from Singapore, South Korea and China are already at all-time highs this year, for a combined total of $5.2 billion through mid-June, according to data from Real Capital Analytics.
The forces behind the surge vary. Some Asian pension funds are expanding and accumulating assets as they prepare to support aging populations; state-run funds are scouring the world for diversification and stability; and some Asian countries, including China, also are liberalizing rules about investment abroad.
Singapore, the No. 1 Asian investor in U.S. property this year, has invested about $1.9 billion as of mid-June. That is more than the cumulative total that the city-state has invested in the U.S. over the past decade, Real Capital data show.
China has invested more than $1.5 billion in 2013, compared with $300 million in 2012, according to Real Capital. Last year, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission paved the way for more deals by relaxing the rules for some big insurers to invest in certain types of overseas property.
Source: WSJ
