Will London look inviting to Chinese?
Friday’s edition of the China Daily carried a full-page advertorial for luxury London home developments, as yet another foreign developer tries to market their homes to China’s wealthy.
The advertorial was taken out by Berkeley Homes, a major London luxury developer, in conjunction with Colliers International, who are marketing homes in several of Berkeley’s projects to wealthy individuals in China and other parts of Asia Pacific.
This marketing initiative demonstrates the growing interest in raising sales of overseas homes to Chinese buyers, as the country’s wealthy continue to spread their investments overseas. In June, the US National Association of Realtors (NAR) released a report that showed that from March 2011 to February 2012, buyers from China and Hong Kong became the second-largest group of foreign buyers of homes in the US, accounting for $9bn of sales. (Canadian buyers were in the top spot).
The NAR report showed there was a 23 per cent rise in sales to Chinese buyers in 2011-2012 compared to 2010-11, and an 88 per cent rise in sales compared to 2009-10 when Chinese investors bought only $4.8 billion in US homes.
The Berkeley promotion features four of the firm’s London developments, 75 Leman Street, Roman House, Saffron Square and Caspian Wharf. And while the text does little more than provide details on each project’s location and amenities, the fact that the ad was placed at all, shows the growing recognition of the growing might of Chinese buyers.
The Berkeley Group, which is based in London, markets its properties under the brands Berkeley, St James, St George, St Edward, Berkeley First, Berkeley Commercial and Berkeley Partnership.
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