Chinese international property portal Juwai says that Chinese investment in the UK housing market is set to grow this year.

It says most Chinese buyers will be focused on London, but increasing numbers will be looking for more affordable markets.

A spokesperson for the site said: “In 2013, we predicted that Chinese would be the No. 1 foreign buyer group in London by 2016. They have already achieved that – a year earlier than our schedule.

“Why do the Chinese like the UK and London in particular? There is a clear and transparent judicial and tax system, they feel like their investments are safe, there are excellent education institutions and the city is a cosmopolitan crossroads with great cultural attractiveness.

“Chinese real estate investors are finally starting to play a role in the world that is proportionate to the size of their economy.

“As China further loosens capital controls in the next few years, the Bank of England expects the assets Chinese citizens and companies own overseas to increase by 600%.

“Despite all the growth we have seen in the past half decade, there will likely be even more in the coming ten years.

“The Chinese are investing at a rapid rate, but they haven’t yet accumulated large quantities of oversees assets because they only recently started their global investment.

“They still don’t own as many overseas properties as Americans do as a whole.”

The International Monetary Fund predicts China’s economy will grow at 7.3% this year compared with a forecast of 2.5% for the UK.

China created 40,000 new millionaires last year, bringing the total to 1.09m.

According to Juwai, Chinese people prefer bricks and mortar to any other type of investment.