Property consultancy Knight Frank has observed an influx of Chinese investors interested in Malaysian properties. This comes as cross-border investment activity in China increased by 26-fold in the last 10 years.

"There are a lot of China-based manufacturers, as well as other sectors that have set foot in Malaysia, and most are very positive in doing business here" said Nicholas Holt, Knight Frank's Asia Pacific research head, at the inaugural Active Capital, The Global Report 2017 launch.

The report showed that Asian real estate investors have become one of the most important global capital exporters, with China ranked second behind the United States, Singapore listed sixth while Hong Kong and South Korea tied for seventh.

"However, it is Chinese capital that has been the key driving force behind global real estate transaction volumes over the past few years, especially across the Super City markets based on the report.”

In fact, the emergence of Chinese investors, institutional, state owned enterprises and developers in global real estate markets have been the biggest single trend in the last 10 years.

Some target locations, however, have felt uneasy on the sustainability of Chinese investment, with questions raised about the health of the domestic economy and the government's latest capital outflow controls, said Holt.

But while China's outbound transaction volume has reduced in several markets, due to the stricter capital outflow controls, the trend is expected to be temporary, with the capital controls likely to be eased when the yuan exchange rate improves along with the gross domestic product growth, said Allan Sim, capital markets executive director at Knight Frank Malaysia.

"Chinese investors are focusing on gateway cities due to stability and depth and key South-east Asian hubs, especially cities on the ‘Road & Belt' route including Malaysia, will continue to attract investors" he added.

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