[bobthepanda]

There are two huge reasons why China has so much investment in property; it is very hard for Chinese to invest outside of China, and the domestic financial market is extremely cyclical and untrustworthy. Money that in the US would be in 401ks, IRAs, funds, bonds, and general brokerage accounts is all shoveled into anything that looks like it could maybe result in any return. It's why China has had big bubbles in financial fads; yesterday it was P2P lending and today it's crypto.

China restricted capital mostly because it learned from the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis that rapid capital inflow and outflow is extremely destabilizing. The problem is now Chinese capital is basically a pot boiling over, and if you crack the door open enough capital will flow out that could destabilize the global economy and pop the Chinese bubble. The hangover would eclipse the previous big deflation of the Japanese economy.