Chinese investment in overseas real estate last year rose to 33 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, an increase of 53 percent year on year, according to figures released by several organizations including the global real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), Hurun report and fang.com.

It also revealed that 82.4 percent of Chinese buyers invest more than 10 percent of their total assets in overseas real estate.

The United States remained the most popular global property market for Chinese investors last year, followed by Austrialia and Canada.

Chinese real estate investment in the US totaled $14.3 billion. The most sought after cities for Chinese investors in 2016 were Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.

The purposes of 25% Chinese purchasers who brought properties in Australia are for their children to access the education there.

The types of real estate bought by the Chinese investors with over 10 million yuan (about 1.45 million U.S. dollars) in 2016 were condominiums (57.4%), villas (47%), office buildings (7.8%), shops (7%), hotels (5.5%), chateaus (5.5%) and farms (2.6%).

Email: lijia@nbd.com.cn