Carmen Chong

Every week, we ask a real estate professional for their thoughts on the top trends in real estate. 

This week, we talked with Carmen Chong, 2015 national chairwoman of the Asian Real Estate Association of America (AREAA). 

Boston Agent (BA): Do you think the presence of Chinese buyers in the American market will increase in the future? What will keep it growing?

Carmen Chong (CC): Yes, I do think will continue to increase in the near future. Chinese real estate buyers are just getting their feet wet abroad. More than half of the Chinese citizens are now considering buying foreign real estate, especially in the United States. Chinese are desperately looking for partners who can introduce foreign investment products to them.

BA: In terms of connecting and marketing to Chinese buyers, what advice can you give to U.S.-based real estate agents?

CC: As the National Chairwoman of AREAA (Asian Real Estate Association of America), I would encourage them to align themselves with organizations such as ours. We have 35 chapters across the U.S. and Canada, and have seen success in connecting real estate professionals and developers with the Chinese investors. The AREAA is a nonprofit professional trade organization dedicated to promoting sustainable homeownership opportunities in Asian American communities by creating a powerful national voice for housing and the real estate professionals that serve this dynamic market.

BA: In your opinion, what are the top factors attracting Chinese buyers to Miami?

CC: There are three main reasons why Chinese buyers are looking at properties in the U.S.: investment, education and immigration. Each of these factors will drive the location of the real estate acquisition and affect how a Realtor needs to handle these buyers. We have noticed that most of our mainland Chinese investors are interested in capital growth. Each year the number of Chinese students arriving in the U.S. increases. As the air quality worsens and the overall situation in China becomes more dubious, many Chinese plan to emigrate to foreign countries. We just recently opened our AREAA Greater Miami Chapter. It was a two-day education and celebration program led by Francisco Angulo, who is well known in our international community and has more than 21 years in real estate.

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