Chinese tourists go house-hunting in US: paper
8/12/2008 16:13
Chinese visitors have been seeking to buy foreclosures and other bargain
properties in the US plunging housing market in recent months, a newspaper
reported yesterday.
The trips are part of a broader trend of individuals and
businesses in China seeking greater investment opportunities abroad, the Los
Angeles Times said.
"With housing prices crashing in the United States,
home-buying trips to America are becoming one of the more popular tour group
packages in China," the paper said.
Overseas Chinese have been buying US
properties for years. What is different now is that they are starting to do it
in large groups and quite openly, said the paper.
"Before, it was kind of
private, a quiet thing among friends," Jamie Lee, a Chinese American who runs
the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau office in Beijing, was quoted as
saying. "Now it's full-blown... It's huge."
The Chinese do have a lot of cash
to spend. The Boston Consulting Group estimates that there were more than
391,000 millionaire households in Chinese mainland last year, up from 310,000
reported the previous year.
Home prices in the United States have fallen more
sharply than in China, and many Chinese consider the American market a highly
alluring place to invest and live because of the United States' developed
economy, the paper said.
Xinhua
|
