China's rich seek shelter from stock market storm in foreign property

RICH EXODUS

Since 2000, Chinese mainland has had the world's largest outflow of high net worth individuals. Around 91,000 wealthy Chinese mainlanders sought second citizenship between 2000 and 2014, according to a report by residence investment broker Lio Global, a factor that is fuelling demand to buy foreign property.

Most of these individuals, defined as those with net assets of $1 million or more excluding their primary residences, are moving to the US, China's Hong Kong, Singapore and Britain.

Brian Ward, president of capital markets and investment services for the Americas at commercial property company Colliers International, said Chinese mainland investors had already sunk around $5 billion into US real estate in the first six months of 2015, more than the $4 billion they invested in the whole of 2014.

In London, Alex Newall, managing director of super prime residential realtor Hanover Private Office estate agents said he had seen an increase in interest from Chinese mainland investors at the top of the market, although no transactions yet.

"They're wanting to try and park large sums of money - I'm talking from 25 million pounds ($38.5 million) to 150 million pounds," Newell said.

"They're looking to park that capital into London homes."

Australia and Canada are also increasing in popularity, gaining an edge from their weakening currencies.

"Property prices are still cheap in RMB (yuan) terms," said Timothy Cheung, a principal of Morphic Asset Management in Sydney.