The determinants of Chinese Outward Real Estate Investment

Chinese outward investment into real estate has increased tremendously in recent years. However, the growth of Chinese outward real estate investment has attracted little attention in the literature. This study examines the factors driving this growth and extent of which the established general theory of foreign direct investment can explain the Chinese outward real estate investment (FDIRE). Using the unique dataset of Chinese outward real estate investment collected from Real Capital Analytics, we quantify the main drivers of China’s outward FDIRE across a range of variables. The results show that both the established general theories and real estate specific factors together explain the Chinese outward real estate investment. Specifically, market size and cultural proximity have a positive influence on Chinese FDIRE outflows. In addition, transparency has an impact on Chinese foreign real estate investment via an interaction term with market size. Specifically, transparency only has an acute impact on Chinese outward real estate investment in larger markets with more opportunities. The implications of the findings have also been discussed