With
confidence in their hometown markets fading, Chinese investors are continuing
to throw billions of dollars at United States real estate.
In the first half of this year, companies with Chinese backers
accounted for $5 billion worth of U.S. real estate purchases, according to the
Wall Street Journal.
That dollar volume is up 19 percent year-over-year, and if $7.9
billion in unclosed contracts are counted, Chinese investment appetite in six
months has nearly eclipsed the $14 billion spent in all of 2015.
Those deals have involved some of the country’s most
high-profile developments and properties. Just last month, the Journal
reported, a group of Chinese firms including Greenland Holding Group and the
Ping An Trust plunked down $171 million for a 42-acre strip of land abutting
the San Francisco Bay. The group is now planning a $1 billion biotechnology
development.
In Miami, the China
City Construction Holding Group is hoping to develop both a major mixed-use project in
Brickell and a residential tower in Miami Beach.
And in one of the biggest deals yet, Shanghai Municipal
Investment, China’s largest state-run enterprise, partnered with Extell Development to build the luxury $3 billion Central
Park Tower that’s slated to be the country’s tallest residential building.
Chinese companies are looking to diversify their investments as
confidence in their local real estate markets is waning, the Journal reported.
A government anti-corruption crackdown from President Xi Jinping is also
putting pressure on firms to move their money offshore, as some local property
sales have already been blocked.
“The vast majority are looking for development opportunities,”
JLL’s Stephen Collins told the Journal. He said Chinese companies have
development track records in their home country, and feel they can make a
bigger profit from ground-up projects rather than investing in an existing
building. [Wall Street
Journal] —Sean Stewart-Muniz
Original
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