Not Just London – Chinese Now Buying Up British Country Estates

While China’s investors have been buying up London real estate in recent years, and firms like Greenland Group and Dalian Wanda have made billion dollar acquisitions of commercial properties, the country’s nouveau riche are now moving into the English countryside.

According to a story from the UK’s Guardian, Chinese investors are among the growing numbers of rich foreigners buying farms and country estates across Britain.

The newspaper quoted Andrew Shirley, head of rural research at estate agents Knight Frank, as saying,

People from around the world who buy a townhouse in Chelsea look around for what else they could buy … increasingly they’re looking at country estates and farmland. There has been a significant increase in inquiries from overseas investors.

As has been seen in other markets such as Hong Kong and Singapore, the buying power of wealthy Chinese is quickly driving up prices. The recent buying spree has moved the price of farmland up 11 percent in the last year, to a record high of £6,882 an acre (RMB 16.89 per square metre).