SHANGHAI, March 24 (UPI) -- A U.S. real estate giant will contribute $20 million to a fund with two Chinese partners that will invest up to $150 million in China's property market.
GE Real Estate said it would be the sole strategic investor in Citic Capital Vanke Property Development Fund with partners China Vanke, one of China's biggest property developers, and Citic Capital, a unit of state-owned Citic International.
GE joins ING, Morgan Stanley, Cargill Financials and other blue-chip firms pouring money into what they see as one of the best-performing property markets for the next five years, the South China Morning Post reported Friday.
The new fund will be managed by Citic Capital. China Vanke will be the exclusive development manager for all fund investments.
The fund will invest $100 million to $150 million in residential properties in the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta and several cities.
GE Chief Executive Officer Michael Pralle expected his firm to invest $500 million in Chinese real estate in three to five years.
Pralle quoted official estimates that nearly 400 million people will move from the countryside to the cities in the next 10 years, stimulating demand for homes.
