China drives portuguese property growth
Lisbon, Portugal Photo: rstml
More than one in five properties sold in Portugal in 2014 went to an overseas investors, according to the Portuguese Real Estate Agents Association. While Britons led the way, Chinese buyers were close behind.
Indeed, China is increasingly influential on the global world stage, buying up property in a range of countries, from the US - where it was the biggest spender in the 12 months to March 2014, according to the National Association of Realtors, to London.
Jill Lin, a Guangzhou native who moved to London and now helps buyers snap up international property, says that Chinese buy property not just for investment but also for their children's education.
"In 2013, the Chinese government began tightening the local property investment market. The tougher rules forced wealthy Chinese to look overseas," she told the South China Morning Post.
"Last year, when I heard that the richest Chinese businessman Li Ka-shing was selling his mainland properties to invest massively in England, I knew it would be seen as a signal to rich Chinese investors to follow suit, especially those in the Pearl River Delta," she added.
According to a recent study by the Hurun Research Institute, at the end of 2013, 1.09 million Chinese buyers owned properties worth 10 million yuan (HK$12.6 million yuan) or more. With the size of China's wealthy population expected to increase in the coming three years, investment is predicted to continue growing.
Indeed, English house builder Barratt entered the Chinese market in 2012, selling 400 flats last year, up from 200 in 2013. It anticipates 500 sales this year.
For Portugal, the trend has been a major factor in the property's market recovery, even as a scandal surrounding the country's Golden Visa scheme (which grants residency permits in exchange for investment) surfaced in the second half of the year.
"The property market grew by between 9 and 15 percent in 2014," the head of the association, Luis Lima, told the press.
"If it hadn't been for the Banco Espirito Santo debacle and the golden visas scandal it would have been 25 per cent."
While Chinese buers prefer two-bedroom flats around £400,000 in London, in Portugal, they prefer homes in Cascais, near Lisbon, as well as villas in the Algarve.
"We've seen a small drop in demand from the Chinese since the visa scandal in November, but the number of French moving into Portugal has exploded," added Miguel Poisson, director of the ERA real estate agency network.