Chinese pour billions into US real estate, surpassing Canadians as biggest foreign buyers, study finds

Chinese nationals became the largest foreign buyers of US homes last year as they pour billions 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 US$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 US$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.