Despite aggressive cooling measures, cross border land acquisition in Asia by institutional and private Chinese investors continues to boom.
Around 80 percent of cross-border residential land activity in Asia-Pacific originated from Hong Kong and mainland China developers, Knight Frank says in its latest «Asia-Pacific Residential Review».
The report reveals that cross-border residential land investment activity in Asia-Pacific has risen by 136.9 percent over the last decade, hitting more than $42 billion in 2016, compared to $17.8 billion in 2007.
The main bulk of this cross-border capital originated from developers based in Hong Kong and mainland China, constituting 80.2 percent of the total money spent on acquiring overseas residential lands within Asia- Pacific.
Singapore Trails North Asia
On the surface, Hong Kong developers alone are the front-runner with almost three quarters of the market share but in fact the most acquisitive companies have roots in the mainland.
Singapore-based developers are trailing behind Hong Kong, snapping up a meagre 7.3 percent of the total cross- border volume as they actively pursue more overseas development opportunities.
Cooling Measures
«Following the flurry of cooling measures introduced in major Chinese cities and the recently enforced capital controls, we expect Chinese developers to put more money into Hong Kong and smaller Tier-3 Chinese cities this year,» said Nicholas Holt, Head of Research for Asia-Pacific at Knight Frank.
