NEW CHAPTER(S) FOR REALTY BIG
Larry Rideout, founder and chairman of Boston’s Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty, is among a slew of real estate experts to co-author a how-to book for Asian investors looking to get in on American property. And he threw a shindig yesterday at Hampshire House, where power brokers collected and copies of “Chinese Institutions’ Definitive Guide to USA Real Estate” were signed.
In the book, Rideout naturally focuses on what’s going on in the Boston real estate market.
“The schools are obviously an attraction for Boston,” he told the Track. “The limited inventory here is a restriction for everybody. But Chinese investors are typically all-cash buyers, so they always come in strong with their offers to sellers.”
Ben Briggs, executive vice president at Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s
International Realty in Texas, was the main driving force in orchestrating the book. The new book is meant to serve as a guide to Chinese buyers interested in investing in major metro areas throughout the U.S., including New York, Seattle, Miami, D.C., Los Angeles, Atlanta and Austin, Texas.
“They’re going for bigger and bigger,” said Briggs, who’s been living in Asia for 11 years. “It’s not just in Boston — it’s everywhere. This is one of our ways of acknowledging that it’s happening. … It’s our way of serving them.”
While these brokers might be rolling out the red carpet for Asian investors, criticism has mounted in some quarters about foreign money snatching up prime U.S. real estate.
An influx of Chinese buyers has contributed to surging property prices in major U.S. cities, including Boston. As if we needed another factor driving up those costs.
If you ask Rideout how Boston goes about better serving Chinese buyers, he’ll tell you to get a pulse on what’s going on out West.
“In Boston, we can call up the folks in Seattle,” Rideout said. “You ask them, ‘What’s going to happen to me in six months?’”
Dean Jones, owner and CEO of Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty out in Seattle, said that because of his city’s geographic accessibility to Asia, it feels the impact of new trends before they spread to Boston.
“Chinese investors are attracted to Seattle and Boston for the same reasons — the same reasons that tech companies are so drawn to our cities,” Jones said. “It’s cost of living, direct flights, superior education, a great lifestyle and strong job prospects.”
With a big ol’ question mark casting a shadow over immigration policy and the EB-5 Program, the upcoming trends we can expect from Asian investors are TBD.
“We’re still in the first few innings of this,” Jones said. “I feel like being in Red Sox territory, I have to go with the baseball analogy. And we’re not sure what the umpire will call on immigration. The umpire being the presidency, of course.”