Chinese investors flood Bellevue, Seattle with big money
Chinese investors flood Bellevue, Seattle with big money
KING 5's Chris Daniels reports.
8:06 p.m. PDT June 11, 2015
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(Photo: Chris Daniels, KING)
SEATTLE -- The sun shines bright, and the waves crash at the boat cruising through Lake Washington. Dean Jones brings the motor to a halt, and coasts along the shoreline.
"That just entered the market at just over 10 million dollars," said Jones as he points and the boat sails along. "That one sold for about $8 million."
He's also blunt about who is buying.
"(It's) largely driven by overseas demand," said Jones, who owns the Realogics Sotheby branch in Kirkland.
It's why his firm has also started doing what he calls "Float-Pen Houses" for Chinese clients.
The residential real estate push comes as Chinese firms continue to buy up commercial properties around the region.
Recently, a Hong Kong firm entered into an agreement to buy Seattle's largest office tower: The Columbia Center.
In Bellevue, Plus Investment USA paid $30 million for the First Congressional Church property at NE 8th and 108th, and dropped another $45.9 million in February for the neighboring property at NE 8th, between 108th, and 110th. It plans to build two residential towers on the property.
Another Chinese firm paid $13.1 million in April for a spot between NE 10th and 102nd and 103rd. It intends to build three bedroom condos, for "multi generational and extended families," according to Bellevue City leaders.
Bellevue College is also building 350 units for $44 million, to accommodate the rising international population, especially from China.
What's driving this boom?
"The middle class (in China) standard of living is going high," said Martha Lee, of the Greater Seattle Chinese Chamber of Commerce. "It's a massive change that's going to take place," she says.
Lee also points to a 2013 romantic comedy "Beijing meets Seattle" for pushing Chinese nationals to visit and buy in the region.
"It grossed 85 million in China, really put Seattle on the map," she said.
Lee and the real estate agents also say Canada's tightened immigration laws have pushed Chinese investors to look elsewhere in the last year.
"Their immigration policies have changed so it's not so easy to immigrate to Vancouver anymore, but US immigration policy -- you've heard of EB-5 -- is still favorable to the Chinese," says Mei Yang, agent for Realogics Sotheby's.
She's part of the special "global" office within the Kirkland branch, which includes a tea room and other amenities to cater to clients from the Far East.
She also says the clean air has helped her sell clients.
"(My client) says, 'Mei, I feel drunk.' I say, 'What do you mean?
Have you been drinking?' He says, 'Too much oxygen here.'
So we don't realize it; we take it from granted," said Yang.
Agent Shensheng Wang was helping her client look at a Kirkland waterfront home on Wednesday, also said the exchange rate is a factor.
"(You) compare with China market. Here is $4 million. There it could can only buy condo, not mansion house," she said.
Jones says he'll likely continue these "float-pen" houses for the foreseeable future.
"Waterfront is largely unattainable in China," he said. And here "it's actually affordable, compared to other west coast markets."
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