THE BIG APPLE OR BEIJING?
Chinese investment in NYC real estate has skyrocketed over the past year
All of Manhattan is becoming Chinatown.
Chinese investors and developers are flooding the local real estate market at never-before-seen levels, buying some of New York City’s most iconic buildings at prices that local buyers aren’t willing to pay.
“Insane is definitely the right way to characterize it,” said real estate attorney Edward Mermelstein, who’s worked on projects with Chinese investors. “New York has become the favorite place for the Chinese to deploy their capital.”
So far this year, the Chinese have forked over more than $3.8 billion on Manhattan real estate, a more than threefold increase over what they spent in all of 2014, according to data from Real Capital Analytics.
And outbound capital from China going into U.S. commercial real estate transactions topped $10 billion in 2014 for the first time, after 72% average annual increases since 2010, according to commercial brokerage CBRE.
“Canadians used to be the No. 1 residential foreign buyers in the New York. Now, it’s the Chinese,” said real estate attorney Ross Moskowitz of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. “We have seen some domestic buyers backing away from deals because they realize they’re going to be outbid.”
The new Chinese investors aren’t grabbing second-rate deals in Chinatown, but ponying up big bucks for trophy assets in the most expensive submarket in New York — Midtown.
Read More: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/real-estate/chinese-flooding-nyc-market-article-1.2309896