What Brexit? Hong Kong investors still favour London
What Brexit? Hong Kong investors still favour London
Property developers in the British capital report continued strong interest from Chinese SAR investors
Hong Kong investors are still prioritising London real estate despite post-Brexit anxiety, reports the South China Morning Post.
Crest Nicholson London revealed to the post that it closed more transactions with Asian buyers in the weeks following the June referendum than the six months before it. Trevor Selwyn, managing director for the housebuilding company in London, says that “things are pretty much back to normal again” months after Britons voted to leave the European Union. “It is a bit more cautious, it’s a bit more relaxed.”
In addition, CBRE’s China desk in London reported visits by an average of five Chinese delegations, consisting of developers and investors, a week throughout the summer. The firm has seen GBP1.5 billion (USD1.981 billion) in Chinese transactions this year so far, with “several other deals in the pipeline,” according to Richard Zhang, who heads the desk.
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“Despite the uncertainties following the referendum, we still believe there are no other cities in the EU that compare with London,” Zhang says.
Selwyn, on the other hand, noted that Hong Kong “produces the best results,” justifying its decision to promote its new luxury development Brandon House in the Chinese SAR over Singapore.
Hong Kong is expected to benefit from the reconfiguration of ties between the UK and its Asian trading partners post-Brexit. In a scorecard created by Bloomberg Intelligence economists to gauge the Asian economies with the strongest bilateral ties to Britain, Hong Kong ranked second, next only to Japan and above mainland China. Singapore, on the other hand, was rated sixth.
Immediately after the Brexit referendum in June, Chinese international property portal Juwai.com recorded a 75 percent increase in interest from Hong Kong buyers in British real estate.
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Source: Property Report