Real estate investment in China more than doubled to $156.2 billion last year, while the total for the U.S. slumped 64 percent to $38.3 billion, the New York-based broker said in a report today. Excluding residential investments, the U.S. came third after China and the U.K.

“China will continue to see vibrant investment activity, despite recent government measures to cool down the property markets,” Donald Han, Cushman & Wakefield’s managing director for Asia-Pacific capital markets, said in the report.

China’s economy expanded at an annual rate of 10.7 percent in the final quarter of last year, boosted by Premier Wen Jiabao’s $586 billion stimulus package. The U.S. property market is being hurt by high levels of unpaid debt and a reluctance among banks to lend as they clean up their balance sheets, Cushman & Wakefield said.

China is taking steps to rein in the real estate market as price increases accelerate. The government in January re-imposed a sales tax on homes sold within five years of their purchase and the People’s Bank of China raised the proportion of deposits banks must set aside as reserves to reduce lending. Property prices in December rose at the fastest pace in 18 months.

Eight of the world’s 20 largest property markets last year were located in the Asia Pacific region, with Hong Kong, Taiwan and New Zealand registering gains in investment, according to the report. Cushman & Wakefield is the world’s largest closely held commercial real estate adviser.