（这是《世界地产投资 Global Real Estate》杂志的约稿。英文的。主要观点是，中国人还是要来美国买房产，只不过他们是悄悄地来，而且他们需要专业的隐秘的投资服务。投资美国房产，主要原因是中国房产作为投资工具大不如美国，而且中国富人群体大幅度扩大，对美国房产有需求。）

  "I will come back and buy a house in another trip!", said Mr. Yin Guohua, on a taxi from Beijing airport, right after his trip of a well exposed real estate "bargain hunting" group trip to the United States.  A group of 22 real estate investors, organized by Soufun, the biggest Chinese real estate media company, came to 5 cities in the States for "bargain" real estates.  While they did not sign any purchase contract on this particular trip, the group, and the trip itself, got extreme public attention, with almost all US news media reported then locally and nationally, including CNN, CNBC, ABC, NPR, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle.  Even on the last day of the trip, as a trip coordinator, I was still being begged to coordinate one interview by one program of largest TV networks, a new program with 8 millions viewers, while the group had already shut down for any interviews.  Too much media exposure had already rudely disturbed the investors' privacy.  Real estate investors tend not want to be Hollywood actors, even more so is true for Chinese real estate investors.

  Of course, US real estate market is real bargain for most of the wealthy Chinese.  In Beijing or Shanghai, the average price for a condo is $330 a square foot, with 70 years of right of usage.  While in the best school district of Los Angles, San Mariano, a new single family house is $240 a square foot, with ownership to the land forever.  As you go to the mid-size cities like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the average price for a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2 car garage single family house is about $200,000, which is about only one tenth of what such a house cost in a China city suburb.  With the current sub-prime crisis, and huge spike in bank foreclosures in the US real estate market,  which present another 30-50% discount, American house just become more attractive to Chinese real estate investors.

  Over the past 20 years, the wealthy Chinese individuals had accumulated personal wealth rapidly.  "China has over 30 million people who can invest over 1.2 million USD", said Ma Weihua, CEO of Zhaoshang Bank, one of the biggest private Chinese bank, on Boao Forum for Asia in April 2009.  That give us not much surprise that most Chinese real estate investors did not care much about the frozen loan lenders in the US, because most of them do not need to get a mortgage to buy a $200,000 house.

  As my personal involvement with many Chinese real estate investors who purchased properties in the States, it is interesting that unlike most US real estate investors, Chinese investors' first goal is not return on investment.  Most of the resourceful the Chinese investors can get return on investment for over 100% in China annually, where nearly no real estate rental in the US can remotely match it.  It is actually the social infrastructure of the Unite State of America that attracted the Chinese investors.  America has the best universities in the world, American "melting pot" culture will not make the investors feel isolated, and investment can preserve its value well.  Most Chinese private real estate investor who want to invest in the US real estate not for themselves, but for their kids, and their family members.  With the rapid growth of China economy, the new rich class grow very fast,  some of them with significant income from the "grey area".In the current Chinese society, there is a general tendency of "dislike the rich"(仇富心理）, where the wealthy are easy target of the government audits, and criminal groups.  They come to the US for some rest, not as a target of exposure.  With this experience, it is not hard to understand why Soufun's media-packed group viewing irritated most of the Chinese investors.  18 out of 40 original members of the group, even withdrawn the group before leaving Beijing! 

  To further expand the goals of Chinese real estate investors, most of them also eye on the US residency.  In the US, there is a investment immigration program (EB-5).  The investor put half-a-million or a million dollar into a US business, as long as it can generate 10 jobs in 2 years, the investors can get US permanent residency for the family.  Typically, just buying real estate cannot satisfy the job generation requirement, however, it is the same population that are interested in getting US permanent residency, and buying a house, as said as a most popular Chinese show this year: "We are not lack of money!" (不差钱）。

  In the US, all real estate ownership documents, such as deed transfer, are public documents.  So anyone can easily find out the owners of a real estate property by checking the real estate records in county court house. With the government records getting more electrified and web accessible, this just become easier.  Typically, new Chinese investors are not familiar with the procedures to protect themselves from unnecessary identity exposure and asset legal risk. To create one company in China is very difficult.  However, it is relatively easy and low cost to setup a business entity in the US, so it is very common practice to setup one new business entity for each real estate.  In the US real estate investor community, this common practice is called "asset protection", while to many Chinese property owners, this is not heard of.  With help from professional real estate consultants, real estate attorney, and real estate accountants, the investor can be protected to the maximum extent.

  In summary, the demand from Chinese wealthy real investors to buy US houses are clear, and US real estate market has been sluggish for over 2 years.  Based on our our past experience, and analysis, there are more and more individual Chinese investors buying US real estate.  The key is, provide professional investor services that is tailored to Chinese investors needs, and protect them to the maximum extent.


(Andrew Hang Chen, President, Foreopen LLC, Founder, American-China Council for the Promotion of City and Real Estate.  Licensed Real Estate Broker in the state of Florida.  Coordinated several Chinese real estate investor group to US real estate, specialized in real estate investment consultation services.

陈航，美国富饶房产公司总裁，美中城市与地产促进会创办人，美国佛罗里达州注册地产经纪商。专长于美国地产和投资咨询服务。）