Commercial property investment has become a key index of the real estate industry in China, industry insiders said.

Cai Yun, secretary-general of the China Real Estate Industry Association's business land committee, said commercial property investment has become a key driver of China's real estate industry under the rapid developing urbanization.

"Cities, especially first- and second-tier ones, are developing from single-core to multicore. This leads to a need of more clusters of business land programs in each core area," Cai said during a forum in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

Sponsoring the forum was CBRE, a leading real estate service provider in terms of total revenue worldwide.

Pan Kewei, president of CBRE China, said that competition is fierce in the business land industry, with local, foreign and joint venture developers rushing in.

"The market is in need of large and comprehensive programs as well as small and delicate ones. Each developer should take the fullest advantage of their strengths and handle programs that suit them," he said.

According to an online survey conducted by Sina.com, 67 percent of investors are willing to consider business land investment as their investment priority.