Categories: Podcast

112 – What You Need To Know About Chinese Investors with John Yu

Synopsis:

John is the head of the West Coast global strategy and business development at Hongkun USA, the US subsidiary of a global real estate investment, development and management holding company headquartered in Beijing. The Hongkun Group holds residential, commercial, healthcare, tourism and cultural properties in excess of $5 billion around the world.

In this episode, John will shed light on what Chinese investors are investing in and what their strategies are even with changing global policies. We’ll see what are they buying and how are they getting money out of China. By learning where big investors are placing their bets, you can follow the trend and make enormous profits!

Key Points:

In general, Chinese people love real estate and most of the large Chinese funds in the Bay Area are investing in development for high luxury condos.

The trade war creates some panic from investors. It affects their livelihood and their liquidity to invest in some things like financial products or real estate, but the people who want to invest will find a way to do it.

Some investors are also concerned about the safety and legitimacy of their investment. If they invest through shady channels, their money could be caught in the middle of two countries, so they tend to invest in assets with lower returns but more stability. Follow the trends, look where large funds are pouring their investments into and purchase properties near those sites. Their investment will help yours in the long run.

Show Notes:

Who Is John Yu

John is the director of Hongkun USA. They are the North America arm for a real estate developer coming out of China. Their focus is on hospitality, incubation parks, commercial, as well as the high luxury market. They carry a similar philosophy in America and hope to make a presence and service to the investors and future partners in the United States.

What Is Hongkun USA

Hongkun USA is the US subsidiary of Hongkun Group, a global real estate investment, development and management holding company headquartered in Beijing. Hongkun Group holds residential, commercial, healthcare, tourism and cultural properties in excess of $7 billion around the world. The firm is currently focused on developing innovation-driven properties in Greater Metropolitan areas across the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic and will expand its model nationwide.

Trade War Affected Business

The trade war created panic, fears and lack of trust in what is to come. For some of the business owners, this affects quite directly into the livelihood and liquidity that it had to invest in other things such as financial products or real estate. The trade war on the company level doesn’t affect John as much as with developers.

Returns And Main Goals Of Investors

There are different types of investors so it varies. There are retail investors and limited partners. On top of the pyramid chain, they have a comfort zone in the type of cooperation that they are doing with their sponsors. For investors who are investing not so high amount, they are more hands on. The return depends on each project and negotiations. And for retail investors, they want their security structure to be safe but not all retail investors are well-educated and sometimes can cause problems to colleagues.

Challenges People Having From Getting The Money Out Of China

The China government is a very well structured and smart government. You can’t exchange more than $50,000 per year and that is a big limitation for people. Some people ask their friends or family for help to transfer $50,000 in America. But in this way, you really need to be careful as the China government is aware of these different kinds of loopholes.

Future Predictions About Trade War

John doesn’t know what the future will be but he thinks the trade war will end. He sees more educated Chinese investors stepping outside the comfort zone of the traditional investment in buying houses, condos, apartments into investment in bigger projects in commercial real estate. And John thinks that with the growth of China and its citizens, he is going to see another influx of Chinese investors.