BIG ISSUE China
London’s East End, rather than the leafi er parts of West London that the domestic market prefers. South-East Asia is still a popular destination, but Singapore and Hong Kong prices are so high they are putting off Chinese investors. Also, says Eli McGeever: “These traditional hotspots have both introduced policies aimed at reducing and even halting Chinese investment, as Chinese demand was pushing prices out of reach of the local market.
“Locations like Thailand and Malaysia are receiving strong investment interest – Malaysia off ers investors a long stay visa under the Malaysia My Second Home (M2H) program.”
FINDING CUSTOMERS
Our experts agreed that buyers in China are from across the country. Benjamin Locke said that once they were primarily from Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, but recent enquiries had been from Kunming of Yunnan province, Xiamen of Fujian and north-east China. According to the data from Juwai, their buyers are from 315 cities across China. So agents should be looking for property shows the length and breadth of China. But they need to be prepared. Chinese buyers do a huge amount of homework before they purchase. They will not only ask a lot of questions but also go to several diff erent shows before deciding to buy. When selecting the products, they pay great attention to the environment around properties. For buyers who intend to live there one day, lifestyle and environment is more important than price, says Ivy Xiao of
ACProperty.com.au. Great packaging is important. Although our experts suggest that ‘bling’ is less important than it used to be, a full and well-packaged description of the products is vital. Spend the money on a good quality translation and great presentation or design of the brochure. And get people on the stand who know what they’re talking about, says Benjamin: “Go with good real estate investment companies with expertise in the foreign market.”
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Andrew Batt says: “Ultimately you really need to partner with a local agency who is experienced in the overseas property sector, but don’t expect immediate returns. Chinese buyers generally take a while to make their decisions.”
At exhibitions, hiring casual sales
staff in China with no knowledge of the product and its location is a waste of your and your investors’ time, says Ivy Xiao. Having spoken
Sales usually come in later, well after the show
to exhibitors from many countries, David Wei, the general organiser of the Beijing International Property & Investment Expo agrees, saying that sales usually come in later, well after the show. As well as generating leads at the exhibitions from serious buyers, Ivy Xiao points out that you will gain a reputation among investors. When talking to Chinese buyers directly, it is important to build up a relationship with them, says Garrett Kenny: “I treat everyone the same. We built our business on building relationships and the customers refer more buyers to us.” Eli McGeever adds that it is
also important to understand the diff erent culture and that hard sales techniques don’t always work – it’s not always time to talk business. Don’t underestimate the strength in building relationships.
THE FUTURE
The people we spoke to were positive about the future. “The potential growth of the market is huge. The west and south-west of China will get into the mix in a big way,” says Andrew Taylor. “The Chinese market for international property is large, fast-growing and wealthy. Besides the 2.7 million Chinese with more than US$1 million in investable assets, there are 60 million upper-middle class Chinese who also fi t the profi le of typical purchasers of overseas property.
“What most Westerners don’t understand is that while the global economy has been struggling, the number of high-net-worth individuals in China soared upwards by 41% in each of the last four years. The number is expected to double again by 2015.”
Look out for OPP training’s “Doing business with the Chinese” module, and for forthcoming OPP bespoke tours to Chinese exhibitions, at
www.opp-connect.com.
Beijing Property Expo
www.opp-connect.com
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