While much of that money may initially be parked in more liquid assets like U.S. Treasury bonds and safe-haven currencies such as the Swiss franc, there is growing evidence that foreign property sales may receive a boost.

"There is anecdotal evidence that Chinese buyers have intensified their interest in 'safe haven' global property markets, including London, as a result of the recent stock market volatility," said Tom Bill, head of London residential research at Knight Frank.

RICH EXODUS

Since 2000, China has had the world's largest outflow of high net worth individuals. Around 91,000 wealthy Chinese sought second citizenship between 2000 and 2014, according to a report by residence investment broker Lio Global, a factor that is fuelling demand to buy foreign property.

Most of these individuals, defined as those with net assets of $1 million or more excluding their primary residences, are moving to the U.S., Hong Kong, Singapore and Britain.

Brian Ward, president of capital markets and investment services for the Americas at commercial property company Colliers International, said Chinese investors had already sunk around $5 billion into U.S. real estate in the first six months of 2015, more than the $4 billion they invested in the whole of 2014.

In London, Alex Newall, managing director of super prime residential realtor Hanover Private Office estate agents said he had seen an increase in interest from Chinese investors at the top of the market, although no transactions yet.

"They're wanting to try and park large sums of money - I'm talking from 25 million pounds ($38.5 million) to 150 million pounds," Newell said.


"They're looking to park that capital into London homes."

Australia and Canada are also increasing in popularity, gaining an edge from their weakening currencies.

Sydney realtor Michael Pallier said in the past week alone he has sold two new apartments and shown a $13.8 million house in the harbourside city to Chinese buyers looking for an alternative to stocks.

"A lot of high net worth individuals had already taken money out of the stock market because it was getting just too hot," Pallier, the principal of Sydney Sotheby's International Realty, said. "There's a huge amount of cash sitting in China and I think you'll find a lot of that comes to the Australian property market."

Reuters