British leading home builder Berkeley Group opens first marketing suite office on the Chinese mainland in Beijing

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British leading home builder Berkeley Group opens first marketing suite office on the Chinese mainland in Beijing

(Global Times) 08:51, October 17, 2013

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One of Britain's leading house building companies Berkeley Group opened its first marketing suite office on the Chinese mainland in Beijing Wednesday, the latest move by foreign developers to attract Chinese investors, who have recently showed unprecedented enthusiasm on foreign real estate markets.

"Most of the Chinese investors preferred the properties sold at around 500,000 pounds ($801,600) per unit in London, partly for their children who will study in the city, with the others looking toward long-term gains of capital investment and rental," Paul Bennett, International Business Development Director at Berkeley Group, told the Global Times at the press conference Wednesday.

The growing enthusiasm of Chinese investors for foreign property markets has already raised global attention.

Forbes magazine predicted in a September's report that "hundreds of thousands deep-pocketed Chinese scoured planet Earth (mostly the US) looking for real estate," during the Golden Week holidays, which started on October 1, China's National Day.

Orange County, California, and Queens, New York, in the US are their top-priority destinations, Forbes reported, citing Andrew Taylor, co-CEO of juwai.com, a Chinese real estate portal.

In the London market, "our team has sold around 100 units of apartments to buyers from Beijing since last year, with sales prices ranging from 300,000 pounds to 4 million pounds per unit," Zhang Hong, head of international residential properties in China at Jones Lang LaSalle, a global real estate management company, told the Global Times Wednesday.

Around 80 percent of the buyers of the newly built apartments in London last year are foreigners, and Chinese investors accounted for 5 percent of all these foreign investors, Zhang Ying, managing director of the northern region in China at Jones Lang LaSalle, said at the press conference.

"No capital gain tax and property tax, as well as long-term property holding rights are the most attractive points for Chinese investors in the UK," Zhang said.

Home owners in the UK could own a residential property for a time limit ranging from 125 years to a permanent period. Investors in the US could also enjoy permanent ownership.

In contrast, Chinese home buyers can only own a residential property for 70 years.

However, some would-be home buyers have their own concerns about investing overseas. "It is inconvenient to manage the properties overseas if I still live in China," Li Ming, a 28-year-old white-collar worker, whose family has three apartments in Beijing, told the Global Times.

Li said she planned to sell one of her Beijing apartments and buy a unit in London for her 2-year-old son when he grows up.

"No city across the world could compete with Beijing in asset prices appreciation currently," Bennett said.