Foreigners bought $100b US properties over last year

While the number of properties bought by foreigners in the United States has declined this year, the total amount theyve spent has increased by about 13 percent, reported The Overseas Investor.

From April 2014 to March 2015, foreigners forked out around US$100 billion, up from roughly US$90 billion in the previous year. This means those transactions mostly involved high-end real estate.

By nationality, 51 percent of the deals were attributed to buyers from just five countries, with China topping the list. This was followed by the UK, India, Mexico and Canada.

The transactions were concentrated in four locations Arizona, Texas, California and Florida with the sunshine state accounting for the largest share of overseas deals at 21 percent.

In particular, the Chinese purchased the most number of properties and pumped in the most cash into the market last year to the tune of US$28.6 billion.

On average, they spent US$831,800 per property. This is higher than the average US$255,600 spent on a home in the United States and the US$499,600 overall average for foreign buyers.

Meanwhile, 35 percent of property agents in the country said they worked with an overseas buyer in the past year. They noted that 46 percent of them were looking for a home to occupy, 20 percent were eyeing a buy-to-let property, while 26 percent were searching for a home with good investment potential.

Romesh Navaratnarajah, Singapore Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg

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