China's overseas property investments plunge as capital controls bite

Beijing

PROPERTY investment by Chinese companies plunged in January as the authorities tightened restrictions on capital outflows to support the ailing yuan currency and ease pressure on the country's foreign exchange reserves.

Investment by Chinese firms in offshore properties - which has helped fuel sharp and often contentious home price rises from London to Vancouver - tumbled 84.3 per cent in January from a year earlier, the commerce ministry said on Thursday, without giving the amount invested.

That helped drag China's outb…