Event Recap: Luxury Properties Showcase 2011 (Beijing)

International Realtors Targeting Ultra-Wealthy Mainland Chinese

This past weekend, the Luxury Properties Showcase (LPS) Beijing 2011 ran at the city’s Legendale Hotel. The event, for which Jing Daily was an official media partner, is the latest aimed at connecting international realtors with mainland Chinese interested in buying overseas property. Ultimately attracting 60 exhibitors from more than 20 countries, properties on show included everything from well-outfitted homes to tropical villas, luxury apartments and even private islands and castles. Exhibitors also had investment advisers on hand to discuss overseas property investment with interested visitors.

Making our way through the hotel, Jing Daily noticed an impressive turnout, with locals making up the majority of attendees. Nearly every salesperson, whether Chinese or foreign, spoke Mandarin with visitors. In addition to the realtors flogging high-end properties in faraway locales, exhibitors from major Chinese cities like Beijing, Lijiang, Xi’an and Sanya also took part in the event.

With Beijing tightening real estate restrictions throughout China, a growing number of wealthy Chinese are looking to invest in international property, whether as a way to diversify their assets, to send their children to study overseas, or for a myriad of other reasons. Meanwhile, large-scale luxury homebuilders from Europe and the US are becoming more optimistic about the purchasing power of Chinese institutional and individual investors. According to a recent article by the New York Times, Chinese banks poured more than US$1 billion worth of real estate loans into New York City last year, and Reuters reported that cash-rich Chinese luxury home buyers are outspending local investors in high-end London real estate.

As a private banker who attended the Luxury Properties Showcase on behalf of her clients told Jing Daily this weekend, now is a good time for wealthy Chinese investors to invest in the overseas property market, due to a strengthening yuan and softening international prices. Looking at the showcase from the other side, another attendee, a French real estate agent, told us that although Chinese clients lack a tradition of buying property in France, their purchasing power is now taking shape and it’s a good time for international realtors to get into the China market on the ground floor.

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Special thanks to Sherry Ding from LPS, and Jing Daily Beijing photographer Zhou Siling.

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