Vantone Says China’s Middle Class Want to Move to Taiwan

As China’s upper crust snatch up investor visas to Australia and the US, the ordinary folks are looking to retire someplace closer to home, according to one of China’s biggest real estate developers.

Speaking at a recent real estate forum in Taipei, Yun Dajun, CEO of Beijing-based Vantone Real Estate said that retiring in Taiwan tops the wish list for middle-class mainlanders. The property tycoon told attendees that while moving to the US or Europe requires pensioners to learn a new language, Taiwan’s Mandarin-speaking environment makes the island a natural destination.

over the past five years, he has noticed a trend of wealthy Chinese families migrating to Europe and the United States so that they can offer their children what they believe is a better education. However, he said, he has found that some of those migrants have difficulty adapting to a strange culture and an unfamiliar language.

Meanwhile, the growing middle class in China want a better living environment as well, Yun said. But the high cost of living in European and US cities, and the cultural and language differences have discouraged middle-class Chinese families from thinking about moving there, he said.

In 2012, Vantone began building a $8.6 million project near Taipei. The set of two 29-story towers with ocean views is being marketed to mainlanders and overseas Chinese. The project, Vantone 2011 is currently nearing completion.