Malaysia beats Japan and Hong Kong as China’s preferred investment destination

KUALA LUMPUR (May 11): Malaysia and Singapore were the sixth most preferred property investment countries for China investors in 2015, ahead of Japan (seventh) and Hong Kong (eighth), according to Australian property investment portal Investorist.

“Over the last 12 months, activity on Investorist clearly shows Chinese agency interest is directed to countries exhibiting stable governments, robust economies, top class educational institutions and favourable residency programmes,” said founding director Joo Ellis in the portal’s China 2016 International Property Outlook report. 

About 60% of surveyed participants favoured Australia as their number one market, followed by the US, the UK, Spain and Portugal, Canada, Malaysia and Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong.

“During 2015, market instability in China offered limited options for safe investments for the growing class of High-Net-Worth Individuals (HNWI). The devaluation of the Chinese yuan against the US dollar reduced buying power in the US and UK and increased the popularity of countries like Australia and New Zealand where their local currencies have fallen even more sharply,” the report showed.

Following Sydney, New York and Vancouver as the most popular property investment destinations for China investors was Tokyo, which is also getting popular driven by the yen’s decline to 22-year lows and excitement over the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

According to the report, 10% to 19% of all new apartments in Japan’s capital were purchased by investors from Asia – mainly China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

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