Chinese investors are buying British farmland. Though the sums involved are modest compared to the billions they spend on agricultural land in Africa, Latin America, and the United States, they are expected to grow.
Property agency Knight Frank, says 5 per cent of its farmland buyers are Chinese, and Clive Hopkins, head of farms and estates at the agency, said the Chinese buyers were commercial property investors looking to diversify portfolios by adding farms to their shop, office, and factory holdings in the cities.
They mainly buy 400 hectare parcels of arable land or general-stock farms in southeast England, spending around GBP5 million (HK$59.5 million) each. Hopkins said Chinese investors arrived in the market last year.
'They focus on an area south of Birmingham and east of Exeter, because they mainly arrive in Britain via London, so their centre of orientation is south rather than north,' he said.
Property agency Savills reports that Chinese buyers are interested in so-called hobby farms - country houses with about 20 hectares of land rented out to neighbouring farmers.
Simon Grier-Jones, head of land at property agency Hamptons International said investment in farmland by wealthy Chinese would grow as they became more knowledgeable about British property.