Mainland property investors have been turning in growing numbers to more transparent and stable Western markets since the beginning of the year to cash in on falling prices and weaker currencies. Australia, Britain and Canada are the most popular destinations for the investors, and Japan's property market - considered to be at the bottom of a market cycle - is also a popular option, analysts say. 'They are attracted by stable yield returns, lower risks associated with mature markets, and transparent legal systems that protect buyers' interests,' said Lina Wong, managing director of property consultancy Colliers International's east and southwest mainland division. Continued intervention by Beijing aimed at curbing property price growth would likely encourage more investors to turn to overseas markets, Wong said, with off-plan or pre-construction sales being a preferred option. Typical of the new breed of investors is 50-year-old Zhou Xiannian, a Shanghai businessman. Zhou owns a pre-war villa and two apartments on the mainland. He lives in the villa, which he inherited from his parents and the apartments, bought in 2003, are rented out to expatriates. Born to a bourgeois family, Zhou twice witnessed Red Guards ransacking his home during the Cultural Revolution. Now, older and wealthier, he has begun planning for retirement. 'I don't need much. I would like to live in a nice and clean environment where people are polite and civil,' Zhou said. 'I'm sure I can get what I want overseas but we need visas wherever we go, so that can be troublesome.' But the visa problem can be made easier by buying property overseas, Zhou realised, so he recently bought two properties abroad - one on the outskirts of London and one on Australia's Gold Coast. He bought both without viewing them in person. Before he bought the overseas properties, he sold all his mainland commercial property investments. Wong said this interest in offshore property markets was likely to become more common among mainland investors because of Beijing's recent policies to cool real estate prices. So far, 14 mainland cities - including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou - have announced local versions of policies aimed at curbing demand and prices in the property market. In a bid to cool housing prices further, on September 29 the central government suspended bank loans for third-home purchases from October 1, and said it planned to extend property taxes throughout the country. All first-home buyers must now also make a down payment of at least 30 per cent of the purchase price - from 20 per cent previously. The measures have started to hit property sales in the major cities. And buyers are looking elsewhere. Data from consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle show that 70 per cent of central London's property purchases were made by overseas investors in the past 12 months. Chinese buyers, including those from Hong Kong, accounted for 7.5 per cent. James Thomas, head of the company's London residential team, said Chinese investors were buying in the city because they believed the market offered value for money. 'They can also keep their property for their own use, leasing, or for their kids,' he said. Thomas said he expects fewer European investors in the London market, while the proportion of Asian - and especially Chinese - buyers will continue to grow as the balance of the world economy shifts to Asia.
