Chinese real estate experts believe that cross-border property investments should be on the rise in the next few years, reports Bloomberg (14 November 2016). Chinese have accumulated large amount of wealth, but are faced with rising housing prices in China and lack of opportunities to invest it locally, so they are increasingly buying properties abroad. However, with soaring prices and foreigner taxes in hotspots starting to deter them from their once-favourite destinations, Chinese property investors are turning to cheaper cities. In the US, Houston, Orlando, and Seattle have displaced San Francisco in Q1 2016 as the third-most viewed US destination on Juwai.com, a Chinese search engine for offshore real estate. According to Juwai.com, this year’s purchases could be just be the tip of the iceberg, and Chinese holdings of global real estate (including commercial properties) will probably swell from $80 billion in 2015 to $220 billion by 2020.
