If you are interested in selling overseas property free from stress to Chinese investors, then you may be interested in this article.
Wealthy Chinese investors are the biggest buyers in the overseas property market. Last year, Chinese invested over $35 billion in buying properties abroad, in Europe and across the world.
While the United States remains the most popular overseas property market for Chinese investors, other destinations such as Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, England, Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece are also doing very well.
Why are the Chinese rich buying abroad? The answers lie within, in China. The fact is China is still a closed economy to a large extent where the state enjoys absolute power, even over the personal wealth and assets of the citizens.
The 2015 stock market crash in China wiped off trillions of dollars of savings, and this caused many wealthy Chinese to look for safer alternatives abroad for their investments.
They are fed up of the pollution in China and the stressful life in that country, and look forward to spending at least few months a year abroad, where things are more relaxed and laidback. Also, properties in China are actually far more expensive than those in Spain or Portugal.
This great desire of mainland Chinese residents to buy overseas properties remains strong despite concerted efforts from the Chinese government to stop the flow of capital from China to overseas destinations.
The Chinese government has imposed many curbs such as preventing Chinese buyers from converting yuan into foreign currencies for overseas property purchases. But the enterprising buyers are finding many ways around such controls and are buying anyway, regardless.
As Thomas Lam, senior director at property consultancy Knight Frank based in Hong Kong says, “The new policy may hit some middle-class Chinese who have just started to consider overseas asset allocation. But for high net-worth individuals, I don’t see any impact, as most of them already have offshore bank accounts and investments.”
That’s true. Wealthy Chinese are finding a way out of such restrictions anyhow. They are motivated by a feeling of great worry over economic situation in China and want to park at least a substantial part of their savings in safe havens abroad right now, before things take a turn for the worse.
Sam Van Horebeek of East-West Property Advisors says, “The Chinese upper class is getting increasingly nervous about both the currency weakening and the massive undertakings from the government to stop this depreciation. Many investors are looking for diversification across their investments and property remains the No 1 choice for many Chinese.”
The average property purchase made by Chinese buyers in Europe and elsewhere in the overseas property market is $870,000. Most Chinese
