Quote:
Originally Posted by Edward Briggs
Over the past 15 years I have spent quite a lot of time around Hong Kong and Shen Zhen across the border on the mainland. This area is absolutely on fire, I have never seen anything like it. I don't know the complexities of buying property there but in the nicer areas I would think that there would be enormous potential.
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Edward,
The complexities are not so great really. Before you can buy then you need to get yourself a Chinese Name, since the property register will only accept Chinese names! (The biggest problem I had was practicing writing it over and over. My colleague says that I still write it like a 5-year old!) This is the only prerequisite to owning property on the mainland. However it is recommended that you sign a Power of Attorney to grant to a trusted individual (e.g. a lawyer) the power to sign registration, tax and legal docs on your behalf.
Shenzhen is out of bounds to non-resident foreigners. I cannot buy there because I am based in the UK, for example. If you are based there, you are permitted to buy one property, to live in. The other big advantage of being a resident foreigner is that you can borrow money to finance the purchase (up to 70% if memory serves me right - the banks all fall into line). There are no problems with smaller neighbouring cities such as Dongguan and Zhuhai.
As far as Hong Kong goes, the whole system is based closely on the British system. There is absolutely no restriction on foreigners buying, and no problem for a foreigner (i.e. someone without HK ID) borrowing to finance the purchase of a rental property. This makes the HK property market red hot, because now funding rates, pegged to the dollar, are coming down every time the Fed tries to avert another crisis.