Cross-border buyers, with the majority from Asia, purchased 500,000 homes in the G7 countries last year, worth an aggregate value of US$250 billion, says property portal Juwai.com.

While the largest number of cross-border property buyers originate in mainland China, significant numbers also come from the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Taiwan, and Singapore, India, Japan, Korea, and Malaysia.

Juwai.com said Asia is the scene of wealth creation at a pace not seen anywhere else.

“Asia now has nearly the same number of ultra-high net worth individuals as Europe, but its population of the wealthy is growing at almost twice the rate as is Europe’s, that is 44 per cent versus 23 per cent, respectively,” the firm said.

Juwai IQI executive chairman Georg Chmiel said while the coronavirus pandemic has dealt a painful blow to economies all over the world, the virus has also given added motivation to cross-border buyers from Asia.

In a survey conducted before the pandemic, the top five countries where wealthy Asians look at to purchase residential property are the US, UK, Singapore, Australia, and Canada.

Juwai.com said non-China Asian buyers account for 20 per cent of the real estate buying enquiries that it receives, compared to China’s 71 per cent, the Americas’ four per cent, Europe’s three per cent, and the Middle East and Africa’s one per cent.

In Malaysia, eight of the top 10 foreign real estate investor groups hail from other parts of Asia.

Official data on participation in Malaysia My 2nd Home visa program reveals that citizens from the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Japan, Bangladesh, Korea, and Singapore acquire more visas and likely also more Malaysian real estate than other nations.

Singapore is a popular destination market for other Asian buyers, especially wealthy professionals and business owners due to its political stability and stable markets.

“Investment by less well-heeled buyers is discouraged by Singapore’s high 20 per cent foreign buyer stamp duty. Foreigners acquired 315 apartments in Singapore’s prime core central region in the first nine months of 2019,” said Juwai.com.

In the US, Asians including mainland and Hong Kong Chinese invested US$257.3 billion in residential real estate over the past decade, far exceeding the next largest buyer group, Canadians, who acquired only about half that amount, $129 billion, of US real estate during the same period.

In the UK, foreigners are the predominant buyers of London’s prime property market, accounting for 55 per cent of prime sales and spending £8.2 billion in Greater London during the second half of 2019.

In Australia, Asian investors, including mainland and Hong Kong Chinese, acquired US$135 billion of real estate over the past decade. Apart from the mainland and Hong Kong Chinese, the biggest Asian investors were from Singapore, Japan, and South Korea and Malaysia.

In New Zealand, Asian investors, including mainland and Hong Kong Chinese, in 2018 alone acquired homes worth US$1.1 billion, nearly double the US$620 million invested by Australians and nearly 10 times the $140 million acquired by UK buyers. Among the biggest sources of buyers are Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea.

In the UAE, Asian buyers from India, China, and Pakistan are the most numerous foreign property investors, apart from those from other Persian Gulf countries. Asians invest US$6.23 billion per year into Dubai alone, according to the most recent official data from the Dubai Land Department.

Based on this cross-border buying trend, Juwai.com has launched Juwai.asia, the first global portal for non-China Asian consumers who want to purchase real estate around the world.

This will truly be a game-changer in the property industry, it said.

IQI Global group chief executive officer Kashif Ansari said real estate is the new global currency, and more investors seek to diversify their investments.

He said last year, Indian buyers spent US$6.9 billion on American residential real estate, making buyers from India the third-largest foreign buyer group in the USA, followed by Mexico, the UK, and the Europeans.

“We looked at the portals available in the market and created Juwai.asia to fill the gaps by addressing the unmet needs of buyers and sellers. Juwai.asia is the complete solution and the answer to the new world of global investment which we have all entered. We used everything we have learned as the largest proptech company in Asia to simplify the process by which Asians become global residents,” he said.

 

Written by: Sharen Kaur