Real estate survey 2011: Chinese developers beat the ban

With $9.6 billion of reported direct CRE investment in the first half of 2011, according to Jones Lang Lasalle, mainland China remains the focal point of Asia Pacific CRE investment despite government attempts to cut off the domestic debt supply. Alongside three interest rate increases and higher reserve requirements for big lenders, Chinese authorities last year placed direct limits on banks’ advances to developers while provincial governments have increased stamp-duty type levies on buyers, says Nick Crockett, head of corporate finance at JLL Asia in Singapore. With the domestic debt spigot shut off, where is the money for new projects coming from? US high-yield bond investors and offshore partnerships are filling the vacuum, Crockett says. "After several years of abundant finance, China is now a debt-constrained market. However, Chinese property developers have raised significant capital from US high-yield investors as the appetite from foreign lenders to gain exposure to the Chinese market has remained strong," he says. According to capital markets data provider Dealogic, Chinese property companies have raised more than $9.2 billion from US high-yield investors since the beginning of 2010, with $3.1 billion printed in 2011 alone.