05 April 2012 11:16
Courtesy: Overseas Professional Property

Chinese overseas property investors flooding into US cities such as New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco have rocketed up their spend by 24% in 12 months.

According to the National Association of Realtors, Chinese overseas property buyers snapped up $7.4 billion of homes between March 2011 and March this year, a rise of 24% on the previous 12 months.

The Chinese are now the second-largest foreign buyers of homes in the U.S. according to Real Capital Analytics and they are moving into commercial property too. According to the consultancy, buyers from China and Hong Kong spent $1.71 billion on commercial property in the U.S in 2011, four times the amount they invested in 2008.

Around 60% of these investments are being made in pursuit of an EB5 business immigration visa says RCA, and many other buyers are seeking a home children studying in the US.

Chinese applicants accounted for 78% of all EB-5 applications in the States last year, massively up on their 35% share in 2011 according to new government data and analysts think this will grow as a result of legislation proposed last year designed to allow foreigners to get a three year resident visa should they invest $500,000 in U.S real estate, including $250,000 for a primary home.

Mainland Chinese accounted for one third of buyers at luxury California home development, The Heritage in Vista Del Verde in Yorba Linda, whilst realtor Stanley Lo of Green Banker real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area told OPP this week that one third of his clientele are from mainland China and are looking for homes priced $800,000 and up.

Zhuang Nuo, president of SouFun International, a Beijing real estate group, says that the US will remain a top destination for Chinese homebuyers abroad. “The US is always the Chinese people’s dream.”

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