Chinese real estate investors eyeing the US look beyond New York, Los Angeles

Dive Brief:

Chinese real estate investors are beginning to look for opportunities outside major metros like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco as they become more familiar with the U.S. housing market, according to The Real Deal, citing a report in the South China Morning Post.
Thirty percent of Chinese investment inquiries to the U.S. focused on cities other than the aforementioned three, according to consulting firm East-West Property Advisors. The report noted increased interest in markets like Seattle, Houston and Las Vegas.
The rise in information available from real estate websites, among other sources, has allowed Chinese investors to be more informed about the variety of and differences among real estate investment opportunities in the U.S.

Dive Insight:

Chinese investors are a growing force in the U.S. property market and the latest report shows that they are becoming savvier about where they put their money amid signs that residential real estate in metros like New York and San Francisco has reached boiling point.

City Century, a subsidiary of Chinese developer Sheng-Long Group, is planning three residential skyscrapers on a site in downtown Los Angeles, while China-based backer SMI USA and partner Extell Development Co. are building a 1,550-foot, $3-billion Central Park Tower in New York.

A recent report by Zillow put Los Angeles as the most valuable metro in the U.S. in 2016 at $2.5 trillion, followed by New York at $2.4 trillion and San Francisco at $1.3 trillion. Other areas of the country are still below their peaks hit during the last housing boom, opening opportunities for domestic and overseas investors.

Beijing-based real estate private equity fund management company Grand China Fund recently broke ground on a $60 million, 17-story student housing project near the main campus of the University of Texas at Austin, while Canadian developer Empire Continental Land last month kicked off work on a 206-acre community in League City, TX, near Houston.

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