Chinese investors broke sales records in their drive to purchase U.S. commercial real estate in 2013, and analysts expect they will remain active in the global market, with untapped billions more to invest in coming years.
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Outbound Investment
Chinese real-estate investors made a name for themselves abroad in 2013, picking up big-ticket projects from New York to London, and that momentum is poised to pick up this year.
Eight years ago, Du Sha cashed out his chain of home-improvement centers — the first superstores of their kind in China — with a sale to Home Depot for $100 million.
It took just one 15-minute phone call in July to persuade Ifei Chang to join Shanghai-based developer Greenland Holding Group Co. and lead a U.S. expansion. Within three months, she was running $6 billion of projects as part of a record push by Chinese investors into American property.
The company will spend $200 million to buy a 4.6-acre site across from Staples Center and L.A. Live where it plans to build a hotel, apartments and retail space.
In the first two months of this year, more than five leading developers, including Vanke Co and Greenland Holding Group, announced foreign investment plans totaling more than 50 billion yuan ($8.17 billion, 5.9 billion euros). This trend will continue and even strengthen throughout the rest of this year, even though Chinese developers expanding overseas is still at an early stage, analysts say.
China-based investors and developers are dropping huge sums for NY properties they consider bargains.