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Auction.com, a leading online real estate marketplace, announced a new partnership today with Juwai.com, a number one Chinese international property portal. The partnership will allow Chinese investors to access online real estate auctions in the United States.
The partnership is a bold and clever move considering the strong value of the U.S. dollar compared to foreign currencies. According to MarketWatch, “The dollar traded higher against the currencies of most other industrialized nations, except the Canadian dollar and Norwegian krone…”
So what does this mean for foreign buyers interested in the U.S. housing market?
The strength of the U.S. dollar is deterring many foreign buyers from tapping into the American housing market.
American properties that were once affordable to foreign investors have soared in price due to weakened global currencies paired against the dollar.
However, wealthy buyers in China are still actively participating in the U.S. housing market. From the one year span of March 2013 to March 2014, Chinese buyers spent $22 billion on homes in the United States with many buyers purchasing properties in cash.
“Over $48 billion in foreign capital was invested in U.S. commercial real estate in 2014, and China was second only to Canada in the amount of CRE investment,” said Auction.com CEO and Co-Founder Jeffrey Frieden.
The latest partnership between Auction.com and Juwai.com will have an emphasis in commercial properties such as hotels, retail buildings, and multi-family units but may soon transition into residential properties as well.
Real estate auctions are not as common in China as they are in the U.S. Thus, Juwai.com has also enlisted knowledgeable journalists to educate Chinese buyers on the process.
The partnership will bring U.S. listings to nearly 2.6 million users on Juwai.com.