|By Arabian Post Staff| Wealthy Chinese, who are emerging as a new force in overseas real estate investments, are consistently raising their profile in the Dubai property market as well.
According to Nakheel sources, Chinese bought 70 percent of its almost 600 townhouses sold at Warsan Villa close to its Dragoncity shopping mall, where Chinese merchants offer their wares in the biggest Chinese market outside mainland China. Nakheel also sells land, which is for freehold in Dubai.
Nakheel Chairman Ali Rashid Ahmed Lootah has been quoted as saying that the Chinese are also buying land to develop properties for renting as they consider Dubai property yields favourable compared to many other property markets.
According to a Reuters report, Chinese were the seventh biggest property investors in Dubai last year, pumping in $463 million in the first nine months of 2015 compared with $354 million in all of 2013.
Chinese institutional real estate investment in New York and Sydney was close to $6 billion and $4 billion, respectively, last year, up from $1.2 billion and $3.5 billion a year ago.
“The average price of a studio apartment in Hong Kong’s (Central) area is HK$7 million ($900,000), while for the same amount one can buy 7 studio apartments in Dubai,” Sajid Ali, director of Sumansa Exhibitions, which organized a Dubai property show in Hong Kong in January said, adding returns on investment in Dubai are as much as 7.2 percent, compared with 2.8 percent in Hong Kong.
