Insurers Smell Profits at a Real Estate Feast

China's insurance companies have been salivating for years over real estate as an investment target with tasty profit potential.

Taikang Life Insurance Corp., for example, has had a real estate investment team ready to join the banquet since 2006, and several other insurers have been nibbling at the market with minor plays since 2009.

But regulators have managed to keep most of the nation's hungry insurers at bay, limiting access to the dinner table on grounds that property investment, especially residential development, should be tightly controlled.

Developers are showing strong interest in partnerships with insurance companies.

At the same time, regulators have slowly warmed to insurer participation in the property market. That trend was highlighted in September when the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) issued a circular that spelled out certain steps insurance companies can take to qualify for real estate investing.