China has been a major player in New York real estate market but is now expanding their influence on a national scale as it surpasses Canada as the largest foreign buyer of homes in the United States, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Statistics show that the Chinese compose 16% of international buyers which reflects a 12% increase in its rate from 2013, National Association of Realtors reports as cited by WSJ. These purchases are composed mainly of single-family homes and condominiums.
Canadians on the other hand has dropped in its buying rate by 23% from 2013 to only 14% this year. In the third spot are Mexicans which compose 9% of the largest foreign consumers of U.S. properties.
As per dollar volume, the Chinese also prove dominant with $28.6 billion spending on U.S. properties in the year ending in March 2015 while Canadians only spent $11.2 billion.
This surge in Chinese investments is believed to be a result of property buyers seeking stable investments unlike the volatile markets of Shanghai and Hong Kong, R Williams of News Max says.
"The Chinese are deliberate; there will clearly be large capital flows coming to the West," said Stephen A. Schwarzman, chief executive of the Blackstone Group, the largest private landlord in the United States. "That will increase in frequency until the Chinese government decides it shouldn't happen anymore - they've opened the spigot."
Chinese buyers are taking part in expensive property deals, buying 1 out of 14 homes priced at more than $1 million, says New York Times.
Because of the potential of the increasing Chinese investments in the U.S., America-based real estate firms are looking at putting up hubs in China to cater to the promising market of buyers.
"The market is definitely larger and broader than when we started," Steven M. Lawson, the chief executive of Windham China, told the newspaper. "They're very different than the people we were working with in 2007. If we want to cut right to it, they're less wealthy, a lot younger and a lot better educated from an international point of view."
