The Shanghai stock market and Hang Seng Index suffered another loss in August and China's rich are looking towards the West for hope in the U.S. real estate market.
According to The Real Deal, a former HSBC-vice-president-turned-real-estate-agent Daniel Chang said one of his wealthy Chinese clients recently closed a deal to buy a $6 million property in New York after the Chinese Yuan devalued by 3.2 percent. Chang's client is just one of the many Chinese elite who are in a dilemma about what to do with their investments; either leave it back home and hope that China's stock market can weather the storm or place them in a real estate market that has seen tremendous growth in the last few weeks. Chang said in an interview that many of his clients took a hard hit at China's equity market but instead of panicking, it only made them more determined to diversify their assets outside of China.
James MacDonald, head of Savills Research based in China, echoed the same sentiment about the incoming surge of would-be U.S. real estate investors from the dragon country. "[Chinese] Investors who were looking at investing overseas may bring forward their purchases," he wrote in an email response. "While some of those that may not have been considering the purchase of property in the U.S. may now look at doing so," he added.
King5 also reported a spike in property purchases from Chinese families in the Seattle region. According to Realogics Sotheby's International Realty, Chinese investors can't seem to get enough of the area. They have found that the current price range of properties in Seattle are giving so much value to investments which translates to an uptick in sales, Dean Jones, Realogics CEO, said.
Lili Shang, a broker, said that the buying frenzy is not a clear sign that China's economy is about to go down and it could be that the Chinese have just become more enthusiastic buyers.
