According to experts, Chinese property investors can be broken up into groups, including high net worth individuals (HNWI), corporations and institutional investors, that have different motivations to invest in overseas real estate.
“High net worth individuals’ [purpose for real estate investment] is for the younger generation, [with concerns] like education or immigration purposes,” said Henry Chin, head of research for Asia Pacific at CBRE Asia Pacific. He added that institutional investors considered issues such as “diversification, liability-matching and hedging.”
Moreover, Mediterranean countries are a compelling investment for the wealthy Chinese because they “offer incentives which not many other countries do, such as investment immigration,” said Taylor.
So-called golden visa investment programs differ in the minimum required investment amounts across the Mediterranean countries. Greece has the lowest required investment at $279,602 (€250,000), with residence permits renewable every five years. The most expensive among the Mediterranean countries is Spain, which requires a property investment of $559,200 (€500,000) before granting a visa.
The Portuguese Government, which pioneered the property investor visa scheme, has awarded 2,022 such visas since its introduction in 2012, 80 percent of which were granted to Chinese buyers, according to Juwai.com.
