Chinese property investment in the US plunges 56%

Experts predict the downward trend to continue in the coming year

For the past 10 months, president of ACEQ Investment Group Bei Qin revealed that she has not received any inquiries from Chinese clients, which was her target market and primary source of business, reported Asia Times.

“We had the best business in 2016 and 2017. Every day, we had inquiries from Chinese buyers and every week, our WeChat account had more than 10 new subscribers,” said Qin.

“Now, those days are gone.”

According to the National Association of Realtors (NARS), affluent Chinese were the biggest residential foreign buyers in the United States for seven consecutive years, in the 12 months to March when the numbers plummeted at 56 percent.

The recent real estate investments by Chinese only amounted to USD13.4 billion, when a year before it reached USD30.4 billion, shared China Daily.

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“Economic factors, including a stronger US dollar, slowing economic growth in China and capital control, no doubt held back some Chinese buyers,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist of NARS.

“But increasing trade tension rhetoric may also have dented confidence about buying in the US, along with uncertainty over whether travel restrictions would be applied in the future.”

Juwai, the biggest international real estate website in China, predicted the downward trend for Chinese investors in the US to continue until next year, estimating the amount to drop between USD10 billion to USD12 billion by March.

The website revealed that Chinese inquiries for US residences fell by 27.5 percent year-on-year in the first quarter

Oscar Wei, senior economist and director of research at the California Association of Realtors, said the growing concerns over the US-China trade war, a well as the weakening yuan prompted the decline.