Eventually, however, the changes could also trigger the investment of billions of dollars into US real estate, experts predict. Yongheng Deng, associate professor in the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California, and economist Donald H. Straszheim, vice chairman of Newport Beach, CA-based Roth Capital Partners LLC, both predict China will play a growing role in US real estate investments during the next few generations as long as economic reforms in China continue.
At least initially, Deng predicts, Chinese investors will likely only buy US real estate to support operating businesses. “I do not foresee them buying apartments buildings, for example,” he says. Eventually, however, the West Coast, particularly Los Angeles, San Francisco and Vancouver, WA, which all have sizable populations from Asia, could become beachheads for Chinese property investment.