A founder of Hainan Airlines seems to have been so happy with the $47.4 million New York condo that he took possession of in February that he’s bought a second unit two floors up in Manhattan’s swanky One57 development.
Luckily for Chen Guoqing, who co-founded China’s largest private airline with his billionaire brother, Chen Feng, his latest U.S. crash pad on the 88th floor of the building along New York’s Central Park is slightly cheaper than the earlier one – coming in at a more affordable $47.3 million.
The high-end home purchase is part of trend of Chinese high net worth individuals buying up luxury homes in the world’s global cities, as the mainland’s cashed-up investors look for new places to invest the wealth accumulated during the country’s boom years.
Buying into New York’s Most Expensive New Building
Chen Guoqing, serves as Vice Chairman and CEO of Pacific American Corporation, a US subsidiary of Hainan Airlines (now known as the HNA Group) which closed on the latest unit in One57 through a shell company on April 7th, according to an account in New York real estate site, The Real Deal.
Proving that Chinese investors bargain hard, even for luxury condos, Chen is said to have purchased the 579 square mete (6,231 squarefoot), four-bedroom, four-bathroom unit for about 10 percent less than the $52.5 million Extell Developments was originally asking.
Extell, which built the 306 metre (1005 foot) tower along 57th Street has achieved some of the highest prices in Manhattan for the development, which opened in 2014. Earlier this year an anonymous buyer paid $100.5 million for a penthouse in One57, and Chinese have been some of the most enthusiastic purchasers of units in the building along what is now being called Billionaires Row.
Chinese Buyer Pays Record Price for Aussie Home
And there are signs that China’s billionaires are spreading their free-spending ways to other markets.
An unnamed mainland businessman set a new Australian record by purchasing a 750 square metre penthouse in Melbourne for A$25 million ($19.2 million). The deal for the unit that occupies the entire 100th floor of the 319 metre-tall Australia 108 tower set a new record for the highest price per square metre down under, for property in a building which is not due to be completed until 2019.
Chinese buyers are also having an impact on the high-end market in London. Mainland buyers now account for four percent of all sales of homes in the UK capital priced at £10 million ($14.6 million) or above, according to a recent study by property consultancy Knight Frank.
With China’s domestic real estate in the depths of a more than year-long slump many of the country’s richest people have begun looking for new investment opportunities with property remaining a favored asset class.
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