Migrants find a home for capital in pursuit of foreign residence

A growing number of Chinese investors are putting money into overseas property as a way to establish new family, business bases, Yu Ran in Shanghai, Chen Jia in San Francisco and Zhang Chunyan in London report

Migration for investment in overseas real estate markets has become a top choice for Chinese applicants, according to a report on China's migration status released on Wednesday.

The Annual Report on Chinese International Migration 2014 shows that a growing number of Chinese investors are rushing to go abroad in order to buy properties and establish permanent residence in places like Europe and North America.

The report, put out by the Center for China and Globalization and the Social Sciences Academic Press, notes that in 2011, China became the second-largest overseas property buyer in the United States. In addition, 20 to 40 percent of overseas buyers in Toronto and London are from China.

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"Coupled with the high rates of saving and personal investment among the burgeoning middle class, this suggests that the assets and appetite of Chinese funds will increase accordingly," said Jon Neale, head of UK Research at Jones Lang LaSalle.

"Most important, though, China is a rapidly aging country, which suggests the tendency to invest will only increase," said Neale.

Charles Liu, who moved to California's Silicon Valley from Beijing last year, recently spent $1.6 million on a single-family home with a lot size totaling 10,000 square feet (930 square meters) nearby San Jose.

"We saved $400,000 for the down payment and expect to pay off the mortgage in five to 10 years," said Liu.

Liu added that competition is stiff among international buyers as fewer homes are for sale in the area's super-heated real estate market.

Updated statistics from the US State Department show that 6,124 Chinese applicants obtained the EB-5 visa, a type of investment immigration visa to the US, in 2012, nearly eight times the number who did so in 2010.

According to Armand Arton, president and CEO of Arton Capital, a global financial advisory firm, "Our client database reveals that many firms are promoting investments overseas as a way to use people's profits from the China real estate market.

"It's a new world movement — global citizenship is not something you inherit at birth, it's something have to work towards and invest in. This is the reason investment immigration is growing in popularity," Arton said.

A new survey by SouFun International of 12 million potential property buyers showed that 43 percent of respondents said migration is a main reason for buying overseas properties.

Other factors driving such migration include a pursuit of richer educational resources, safer investments and improved quality of life, the report said.

"We emigrated to Canada to ensure that we will live, and my son will grow up, there after I retire from my business in a few years," said Liang Jiehui, owner of a Shanghai-based clothes trading company covering markets in North America.

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