Investvine.com-Sept 7, 2018
Mainland Chinese property buyers acquired real estate across Asia for $32.9 billion in 2017, up 352.4 per cent from $7.28 billion in 2016, a new report by Chinese property portal Juwai.com shows.
In terms of the number of buyer inquiries, Thailand surged three places from being the sixth-most popular country for Chinese buyers to rank third in 2017. At the same time, Malaysia surged six places from 15th most popular country to rank ninth.
Investment in Hong Kong increased by 250 per cent, from $6.6 billion in 2016 to $23.1 billion in 2017. In the residential market, industry estimates suggest mainland Chinese account for up to 30 per cent of transactions. Some of Hong Kong’s reported investment growth in 2017 is due to the unprecedented domination by mainland developers of Hong Kong land acquisitions last year.
Similarly in Singapore, where data shows investment increased to $2.1 billion in 2017. Much the same is true regarding the data for Indonesia ($400 million in 2017), India ($200 million) and Japan ($4.9 billion).
In Malaysia, data shows an increase from $700 million in 2016 to $2.3 billion in 2017. At some development projects, such as Forest City in the state of Johor, prices start at $250,000 and are out of the reach of most local buyers. As much as 70 per cent of sales go to mainland Chinese. A recent ban for foreign buyers to acquire property in Forest City might bring a dent to this numbers.
China’s upper-middle-class buyers are a key driver behind the rapid growth in Southeast Asian investment in 2017. These markets are more physically and price-accessible to buyers with fewer assets, especially when compared with higher priced markets like Australia, Canada or the urban and coastal markets of the US.
Worldwide, Mainland Chinese residential and commercial property purchases in 2017 reached a new high of $119.7 billion, up 18.1 per cent over the previous year.
