Investors are piling into China’s offices, shops and retail space, defying spending slumps across Asia-Pacific real estate markets

Property buyers piled into China’s commercial and retail real estate in the three months ended June even as the country was barely out of its coronavirus outbreak, outpacing demand across the rest of the Asia-Pacific region, according to a report.

Second-quarter investment volume jumped 95 per cent to US$8.4 billion compared with last year, according to data by Real Capital Analytics (RCA). First-half volume fell 23 per cent from last year to US$14 billion, owing to nationwide quarantines to contain the coronavirus outbreak in the first three months of 2020, the data showed.

“There was one stand-out market in the Asia-Pacific that roared back to life in the second quarter,” said the New York-based research firm, which tracks deals worth at least US$10 million. “ Investment in China nearly doubled from last year , reversing a slump of more than 50 per cent in the previous quarter.”

The world’s most populous nation was the first major economy to enter into, and emerge from, the 2020 coronavirus lockdown. With an estimated 80 per cent of manufacturing back on line, the world’s second-largest economy eked out a 3.2 per cent growth in the three months ended June, giving a much-needed boost to the real estate market.

“Throughout 2020, China’s deal count consistently tracked above last year, underscoring how little the [corona]virus has disrupted real estate investment across the country,” RCA said. “Office, retail, and industrial sales volume in China all grew in the second quarter.”

Growth in China occurred in stark contrast to declines in nine other markets across the Asia-Pacific region, where Hong Kong led a region-wide slump of between 23 and 80 per cent.