Fifty percent of Chinese investment in the U.S. has gone to the country's real estate sector during the last decade, China Business News quoted Feng Lun, chairman of Beijing Vantone Real Estate Co. Ltd. as saying.

U.S. senators proposed a bill late last month which seeks to tempt foreigners into buying houses with the promise of residence visas.

The bipartisan proposal, if passed, would offer a three-year residence visa to foreign buyers who make an all-cash investment of at least US$500,000 in an American home. Investors can either spend the entire amount on a primary residence, or purchase a house worth US$250,000 and invest the remainder in another rentable residential property.

In 2009, 3000 business immigrants chose the U.S. and Canada, making an investment of more than 8 billion yuan ($ 1,258 million), Chen Zuofu, vice president of China Construction Bank, told China Entrepreneur magazine.

A recent report found that about 60 percent of rich Chinese with total individual assets of at least 60 million yuan ($9.44 million) intended to migrate from China.

China's business press carried the story above on Thursday.