Wealthy Chinese consumers looking to invest capital outside of the mainland have helped Hong Kong's luxury home market surpass London to become the number one in the world, according to CEO of Christie's International Real Estate, Dan Conn. In an interview with Boston-based radio show Here & Now, Conn explains that China's elite are counting on Hong Kong's ultra high-end property market for a “relatively safe” investment, and they're also looking to its real estate market for building homes for their families.
“There is no doubt that the concentration of Chinese wealth is impacting Hong Kong now more than ever, and that's why you saw four 100 million homes in 2016, you've already seen two this year," Conn told Here & Now. The number of 100 million home sales in Hong Kong last year broke records, with London seeing just two such purchases in 2016.
This year, though, the Chinese government has been making significant efforts to curb the flow of capital overseas. As a result, major luxury real estate markets for Chinese consumers such as New York and Australia have faced challenges attracting Chinese home buyers, who are finding it difficult to make multi-million dollar overseas transactions. The Australian Treasury believes these measures have contributed to a 60 percent drop in real estate investment in the country, according to The Australian.
London's first drop in five years also came on the back of the political and economic turbulence and uncertainty caused by the UK referendum on leaving the European Union.
Read Here & Now's full interview with Dan Conn here.