(Yicai) Oct. 13 -- Despite the waning enthusiasm for real estate stocks, insurance companies are still keen on investing in commercial property assets, such as industrial parks, to achieve stable income.

There were at least nine large real estate projects in which insurance funds invested a total of over CNY16 billion (USD2.2 billion) in the first three quarters, data from the Insurance Association of China showed. Ping An Life was the main investor in five of them. AIA Life, the only foreign insurer to invest in the projects, is expected to pour up to CNY8.7 billion (USD1.2 billion) in a property project on the North Bund in Shanghai. This would be AIA Life’s largest asset acquisition since its establishment.

Despite the sluggish real estate market, rent-collecting commercial real estate with stable cash flow is still attractive for insurance companies. Several investment heads of large insurers told Yicai they had maintained a strong interest in allocating rent-collecting properties, such as commercial office buildings, industrial parks, logistics, and warehousing.

“In the past years, China has been short of high-quality assets, and its capital market is disturbed, but the cash flow and yield of property projects remained relatively stable, which are in line with insurance funds’ general appetite as long as they are high-quality,” a source at an insurance asset management firm told Yicai.

At the end of last month, listed Chinese real estate companies Joy City and ST Shimao said that two of their projects in Beijing and Zhuhai received a total investment of CNY8.2 billion from China Post Life and China Life Insurance, respectively.

Moreover, property giant Vake announced around the same period that its commercial real estate development project in Beijing plans to apply to a unit of Huatai Insurance Group for a financing of up to CNY4 billion via a real estate debt investment plan.

Real estate projects in which insurers are interested are in first-tier cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, and other economically developed areas, according to related data released by insurance companies.

Editor: Futura Costaglione