Chinese offshore property investment has increased 50 percent year-on-year from the start of 2015 and amounts to 15.6 billion U.S. dollars, amid Chinese insurance companies' growing appetite for overseas real estate deals.

Chinese insurance companies start a new round of buying spree of overseas real estate and these companies are expected to fork out 240 billion U.S. dollars on offshore property, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Inc, a global real estate services and investment management company.

For now, offshore property investment was not a big component in China's insurance industry’s portfolio asset mix, suggesting plenty of room for investment growth in this sector, according to Xia Yangyang, China director at Jones Lang LaSalle.

Chinese insurance companies have changed their purchasing strategy as they start the trend of acquiring overseas real estate. Instead of investing directly in real estate, they begin to invest in funds or found joint ventures. In recent days, China Life Insurance Group Co. and Ping An Insurance Co., along with New York developer Tishman Speyer Properties bought the Pier 4 Boston project for 500 million U.S. dollars in Boston. China Life and Qatar Holdings also bought the No. 10 Upper Bank Street in the Canary Wharf area of London.

In the first three quarters of 2015, the U.S., Britain and Australia are still the top three overseas destinations for Chinese investors. China's capital flows into these three countries account for 70 percent of the aggregate overseas investment into the property sector from Chinese buyers.