UBS turns to Chinese commercial real estate

China's home sales fell 11 percent in May from a year earlier. The value of homes sold declined to 446.1 billion yuan ($72 billion), according to the difference between National Statistics Bureau data for the first half of the year and the first five months.

UBS plans to offer clients the option of investing in Chinese property using either dollars or yuan, Cooke said.

The bank, which has about $66.4 billion of real estate under management globally, is also expanding in Australia through a joint venture with Melbourne-based developer Grocon Pty and through an agricultural partnership announced last week with closely held agricultural advisory company Bydand Global Agriculture.

UBS Grocon Real Estate is targeting as much as A $750 million of assets under management by the end of this year, including Grocon developments, Cooke said. The joint venture, which plans to have A $10 billion ($9.4 billion) under management in five years, hasn't announced any investments yet.

UBS Grocon gives the bank the first right of refusal on the builder's A $2 billion pipeline, the latest addition to which is the Commonwealth Games village on Queensland state's Gold Coast. Grocon won the right to be preferred developer of that project in December.

UBS will team up with Bydand to help match investor demand with farms that need equity capital.

"The Australian agricultural sector is carrying too much debt, and a significant amount of farmers are subscale and need an exit," Cooke said. "Farmland provides a great portfolio diversifier and, structured right, it damps volatility and initial demand from clients in all parts of the world seems very strong."

As residential home market cools, investment keeps on growing	Property price surge 'could soon be over'