Photo: David Shankbone/Flickr
Juwai.com, a website that connects overseas buyers with international properties, says Chinese investors won’t be jumping ship in large numbers as a result of Donald Trump’s election.
One day after The Donald’s November 8th election victory over Hillary Clinton, Charles Pittar, Juwai’s CEO, says there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary when it came interest in stateside property from potential Chinese buyers.
“Our web traffic is normal and our inquiries are at normal levels,” he explains in an email statement. “Most Chinese think of Trump as just another president,” Pittar continues.
Juwai, which has a full Mandarin version of its website that lets residents in China view and inquire about international properties, is arguably an indicator of global Chinese real estate investment sentiment.
Prior to the election, Juwai polled about 500 Chinese real estate investors to gauge the possible impact the election results could have on US real estate investment. “Our survey revealed that almost half of Chinese international property buyers think Trump will be good for Chinese investment in the US,” Pittar notes.
Some 54 per cent of Chinese buyers favour Clinton, according to the survey, though 39 per cent felt a Trump-led America would result in more Chinese investment on US soil, according to the survey, conducted from October 4th to the 20th.
“The negative reaction by international markets to the Trump win is more likely to impact Chinese investment than the election itself,” explains Pittar. “If the US dollar stays at very low levels, that could indeed drive a new wave of Chinese investment.
Broadly speaking, Matthew Moore, Juwai’s president of the America’s, previously predicted Trump won’t be detrimental to Chinese investment in US real estate. “Will Chinese buyers desert the US market after the election? It looks like they will not,” he said in a November 3rd Juwai blog post.
The Trump win has celebrities in the US vowing to move to Canada, but a major economist BuzzBuzzNews spoke to says the idea that there will be a wave of Americans heading north is “nonsense.”
