china buying up stocks. Is Real Estate next?

They've diversified. Which is what smart investors are supposed to do. They love RE, but I wonder if they'll think it's politically too touchy and stay out of it. Remember how the U.S. freaked out when the Japanese bought some key buildings in NYC?

True, But they solve that by avoiding marquee properties and staying under key thresholds of u.s. companies.

"The Standard & Poor%u2019s 500 Index will collapse below its March lows as an expected rebound in economic
growth fails to materialize,"

And tokyo RE was worth like 10x the entire value of the US stock market....

Turns out the Japanese overpaid, too.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/187681-china-dumps-u-s-asset-backeds-and-corporates
Dollar-denominated risk assets, including asset-backed securities and corporates, are no longer wanted at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), nor at China’s large commercial banks. The Chinese government has ordered its reserve managers to divest itself of riskier securities and hold only Treasuries and US agency debt with an implicit or explicit government guarantee. This already has been communicated to American securities dealers, according to market participants with direct knowledge of the events.

It is not clear whether China’s motive is simple risk aversion in the wake of a sharp widening of corporate and mortgage spreads during the past two weeks, or whether there also is a political dimension. With the expected termination of the Federal Reserve’s special facility to purchase mortgage-backed securities next month, some asset-backed spreads already have blown out, and the Chinese institutions may simply be trying to get out of the way of a widening. There is some speculation that China’s action has to do with the recent deterioration of US-Chinese relations over arm sales to Taiwan and other issues. That would be an unusual action for the Chinese to take–Beijing does not mix investment and strategic policy–and would be hard to substantiate in any event.

My understanding is that there would be strong tax disincentives for the Chinese to invest in real estate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Investment_in_Real_Property_Tax_Act

Well, lets just think of the money China has. Given the amount, and the trade imbalance, doesn't it mean that they almost HAVE to be buying EVERYTHING?

Gov't can make money worhtless, by over-printing. Harder to do that to real assets...

"Well, lets just think of the money China has. Given the amount, and the trade imbalance, doesn't it mean that they almost HAVE to be buying EVERYTHING?"

If they stopped buying USTs en masse and instead bought stocks and real estate, yeilds on USTs would have to rise dramtically to allow us to fund our huge deficits, which would lead to higher mortgage rates, and lower net present values for all asset classes values on a DCF basis, and thus likely be a net neutral for real estate.

There is no free lunch.