Homebuyers driven overseas

Beijing's tighter restrictions on home buying, aimed at curbing rapidly increasing housing prices, have pushed wealthy mainland investors to shift their focus offshore to Hong Kong and Macau and even as far away as Canada, the United States, Mexico and Britain.

International property consultants said the sale of overseas properties to mainlanders had increased since the beginning of the year, as have inquiries, and they expect the trend to continue.

'It appears that the increased interest in offshore purchases is being fuelled by the continued speculation that the China market is poised for a correction along with the new property regulations imposed earlier this year by the Chinese government,' said Patrick ONeill, chief executive of ONEILL Group, a United States-based firm that specialises in international residential and commercial real estate.

'As an example of the increase, in the last 30 days two offers have been received from Chinese buyers for units at Trump SOHO development in New York City,' ONeill said.

Trump SOHO is a condominium residence in Manhattan with prices starting at HK$8.1 million.

As a percentage of total foreign purchases in the US, Chinese buyers doubled to 10 per cent last year from 5 per cent in 2009, according to the National Association of Realtors. For properties valued at more than US$1 million, this figure is probably closer to 15 per cent, ONeill said.

'I suspect that these figures will increase dramatically for 2011,' he said. 'The only other countries with higher percentages are Mexico and Canada.'