Bubble concerns spread to commercial property

Concerns over a speculative bubble in Chinese property are spreading to the commercial space where developers have been increasing their exposure and the country’s insurers are preparing to invest huge sums, Reuters reported. Strict regulations in the residential segment helped push up investment in the commercial space 35% year-on-year to US$157 billion in 2011. This investment has been fueled in part by expectations of a surge in funding from China’s largest insurance companies, which received approval in 2010 to channel up to 10% of their overall assets into certain property classes, mostly commercial real estate. This speculative buying has caused rental yields to drop across the space, fueling concerns of a bubble. “The low investment yield does give us some concern that prices probably have gone up a lot and we need to see the income growth before we can see values going higher,” said Michael Klibaner, head of China research for consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle.