SHANGHAI'S real estate investment market will probably maintain its double-digit growth in transaction value this year with domestic buyers playing a bigger role than their overseas counterparts, global property consultancy DTZ/Cushman & Wakefield said in a report released yesterday.

En bloc real estate investment deals, excluding land transactions and confined to property acquisitions worth more than US$10 million each, will likely total US$70 billion in the city in 2016, which could represent a 20 percent jump from about US$58 billion in 2015, according to Jim Yip, managing director of investment and advisory services at DTZ/Cushman & Wakefield China.

"Several macro-economic factors, including a loose monetary policy, low interest rate and unabating yuan depreciation expectations, coupled with ever-growing investment enthusiasm among some new-generation insurance firms, have boosted momentum in the local market," Yip said.