Chinese investors are expanding their presence in the United States property market with a buying spree extending from gateway cities like New York into middle America, according to industry consultants.

Mainland firms announced commercial real estate transactions worth US$5.9 billion in the United States last year, according to data from New York's Rhodium Group.

Of these, deals worth US$1.8 billion were completed during the year, a new record and up from US$70 million in 2012 and virtually nothing before 2011.

Besidas the major cities, investors were moving into cities like Miami and Orlando where there was big infrastructure.

Home prices in 20 US cities rose in October from a year ago by the most in more than seven years, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Index.

Thilo Hanemann, a researcher director at RHG, said in an e-mail: "Prime US property has become an attractive proposition for Chinese investors trying to diversify their global portfolios, increase their returns in an era of low interest rates, and hedge against a slowdown of China's economy and a bubbly Chinese property market."

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