Chinese top US real estate buyers: Study

WASHINGTON
Chinese nationals became the largest foreign buyers of US homes last year as they pour billions of dollars into American real estate, seeking safe offshore assets, according to a new study Sunday.

A huge surge in Chinese buying of both residential and commercial real estate last year took their five-year investment total to more than $110 billion, according to the study from the Asia Society and Rosen Consulting Group.

The sheer size of that total has helped the real estate market recover from the crash that began in 2006 and precipitated the 2008 economic crisis, they said.

And despite a slowdown due to Beijing’s clampdown on capital outflows, the figure for the second half of this decade is likely to double to $218 billion, the study said.

“What makes China different and noteworthy is the combination of the high volume of investment (and) the breadth of its participation across all real estate categories,” including a “somewhat unique entry into residential purchases,” the study said.

The authors of the study said their numbers, based on public and real estate industry data, understate the total.

They necessarily miss purchases made by front companies and trusts that don’t identify the sources of the funds.

While big deals, like the Anbang insurance group’s $2.0 billion purchase of the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York last year, and its failed $14 billion offer for the Starwood group in March, make headlines, the study said Chinese buying of US homes far outpaces its investment in commercial land and buildings.

Between 2010 and 2015, Chinese buyers put more than $17 billion into US commercial real estate, with half of that spent last year alone.

But during the same period at least $93 billion went into US homes.

And in the 12 months to March 2015, the latest period for which relatively comprehensive data could be gathered, home purchases totalled $28.5 billion. (AFP)