Mainland and Hong Kong investors have become a major force in the global property market. They have already emerged as the biggest group of buyers in many places, and their share of the market is expected to grow even further.
Favoured investment destinations of Chinese buyers include university towns and cities where their children study, especially in Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia. The combined mainland and Hong Kong student population in Britain has reached 60,000.
Patrick O'Neill, chief executive of the US property developer The O'Neill Group, said the Chinese share of international demand for homes in the US would double to 16 per cent this year. In Vancouver and London, he said, they were already the biggest source of overseas demand.
'Anecdotally, our associates in Vancouver are reporting that Hong Kong and mainland investors comprise over half of the open house traffic,' O'Neill said. Figures from estate agency Knight Frank show that 11 per cent of international property investors in prime central London's new-homes market are Chinese, who are also the largest overseas group. One-third of buyers of new homes in the Canary Wharf financial district come from the mainland and Hong Kong, the agency reports.
Jennet Siebrits, head of residential research at CB Richard Ellis, said Chinese buyers were poised to overtake Russians as the most active international buyers in the prime central London housing market. 'We would expect the favourable exchange rate to lead to an imminent rise in the number of Chinese buyers investing in prime central London property,' Siebrits said.
Chinese investors are most active in the off-plan, or pre-construction, markets across the world from Dubai to Sao Paulo. Other hot destinations include France, where they are buying second-hand apartments in Paris and holiday homes on the French Riviera as well as new homes, reports estate agency HomeHunts.
