American Friend Selling NYC Real Estate to Hong Kong + Asia

End of last week I took a trip to Hong Kong and Macau to be “tour guide” for my college buddy Ish. I have done this in the past for friends from America visiting, like Hasan coming to HK from Pakistan travels and I really am excited to be able to meet my American buddies here on the other side of the world.

But it did come at a rough time, as I outlined the world felt like it came crashing down as I’ve been overextending myself with the startup and coworking community building in Shenzhen, Marie having an early baby delivery, and so many other changes in warehouses in USA and China…..staff moves….Maybe I should have told Ish I couldn’t make it anymore, but I forced myself to make it work and spend some time with my old college friend and fraternity brother (Delta Tau Delta!!)

So here is the main point of this blog….The amazing thing is that he is SELLING REAL ESTATE TO ASIANS LIKE CRAZY. Really top notch high end New York, New Jersey prime real estate. So his firm hired a marketing and investment agency that specializes in helping foreigner real estate companies sell in China and Asia. He was in Hong Kong for the weekend to exhibit his building, 77 Hudson, to investors and potential buyers.

And its cheaper than Hong Kong, by far! And Chinese are buying up USA real estate because they believe its so low, it has nowhere to go but up!

I was talking to a real estate consultant there, Paul, and he mentioned to me that Chinese also want to get their money out of China….that they make quick money through government connections, and then need to get the money out of the Chinese circulation. He gave me a horrible story about a home builder and developer in southern China that was making multi millions developing land and buildings in a certain city…but when the government changed, he lost everything…..

So Chinese also trust American real estate as a safer investment that has little or no political risk, and they never invest in just cash, Chinese like to buy hard assets and real estate fits the bill.

They can even finance the Asian buyers with Hong Kong mortgages for these USA real estate investments….truly amazing. And the place was buzzing with buyers, sitting down at various bargaining tables discussing the 2 bedroom suite with a home office, or just get the 3 bedroom suite.

It really is true, America will be owned by Asians soon enough, both in debt and literally in the real estate assets.

It was great to see Ish, learn about all of this real estate selling spree in Asia…and realize again that I made the right move coming to China and Asia back in 2007.