Chinese buyers snap up aloha hawaii property

Honolulu, Hawaii Photo: Snowpeak

Direct flights to the US islands from China and Taiwan have doubled the number of Chinese visitors this year, which the ONeill Group says has had a direct influence upon the already increasing number of buyers in the market.

During July, sales of single-family homes increased 3.4 percent, while condominium sales increased by 4.2 percent from July 2013, according to the Honolulu Board of Realtors.

Indeed, Patrick O'Neill says the firm's Honolulu office has had to hire 10 new Mandarin- and Cantonese-speaking staff to deal with the demand.

Chinese buyers are most interested in properties in the Eastern section of Oahu, he explains to the South China Morning Post, including Waikiki and the up-scale area of Waialae-Kahala.

The island accounts for more than 1 million of the state's 1.4 million population, while Honolulu is the central business, political and tourist hub. The latter's land-constrained topography has helped to drive up house prices in Hawaii, notes O'Neill, ranking it among the costliest property markets in America.

Chinese interest is now pushing those prices up higher, even surpassing the peak levels recorded in 2006. The average cost of a single-family home in Oahu is now 8.1 per cent higher than it was one year ago, while the average condo value has risen 7.6 per cent year-on-year to $442,484.

The median price paid for single-family homes in Honolulu increased 5.6 per cent from July last year to $683,500 in July 2014. The median price for condominiums increased 1.8 per cent from July of last year to $345,000. O'Neill says that the trend will continue driving up values in the near future.