Recently, mainland Chinese insurers have also invested in properties overseas. Following deregulation, they had not been allowed to invest in properties for a long period of time, thus their property-to-total asset ratios remain considerably low compared to other precedent countries (Chart-1). Therefore, they still have ample space to increase property investments and have even proactively invested overseas.
Not only leading insurers such as China Ping An Insurance and China Life Insurance, but also the following several insurers have already invested in properties overseas (Chart-4). Even when compared with those of Taiwan and South Korea, the number of insurers from mainland China investing in properties overseas is larger, and it appears that additional insurers will start investing hereafter.
Particularly, some giant deals by mainland Chinese insurers have gathered attention in the global market, such as China Life Insurance acquiring 70% of 10 Upper Bank Street, a skyscraper in Canary Wharf, London, at 795 million pounds in 2014, China Anbang Insurance acquiring Waldorf Astoria New York, a luxury skyscraper hotel, at 1.95 billion dollars in 2015 and China Life Insurance acquiring 1285 Sixth Avenue, a skyscraper office in Manhattan, at 1.65 billion dollars together with New York-based RXR in 2016.
Besides the overwhelming scale, mainland Chinese insurers have also invested in property development projects overseas. Particularly, China Ping An Insurance has aggressively invested in several property development projects overseas. For example, it has invested in 50% of a redevelopment project in Sydney with Australia-based Lend Lease and Japan-based Mitsubishi Estate, building a new landmark skyscraper complex in the city center.