The suggestion that Chinese millionaires are gobbling up Hawaii real estate is misplaced.
Chinese investors represent the third-biggest group of international high-net-worth homeowners in the United States, and they appear close to the same rank in the upper tier of Hawaii’s largest housing market, according to a pair of new reports.
List Sotheby’s International Realty tallied up homes sold on Oahu to foreign buyers for at least $1 million, and purchases by individuals or companies based in China ranked third last year, and this year through August, Chinese buyers are in fourth position.
Last year, buyers from China purchased eight high-end homes on Oahu for a combined $22.5 million, or $2.8 million on average, the report indicated. That was up from three purchases for a combined $5.1 million the year before when Chinese buyers ranked fifth behind buyers from Japan, Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore.
This year through August, Chinese investors have bought three properties for a combined $3.8 million, ranking fourth behind buyers from Japan, Canada and Hong Kong.
Among the three sales was a roughly 3,400-square-foot home with ocean views built in 1987 near the top of Waialae Iki ridge in East Honolulu. A buyer from Beijing bought the property for $1.6 million, property records show.
Myra Brandt, principal broker of List Sotheby’s, said China’s growing middle class should have a trickle effect on home buying in Hawaii, but not a boom anywhere close to how Japan dominates among international buyers of high-end homes on Oahu.
"Although there has been a great deal of attention paid to Chinese investment, the Japanese market continues to dominate and shows no signs of abating," she said.
Looking at data going back to 2010, million-dollar Oahu home purchases by investors in Japan ranged from a low of 43 homes for $62 million in 2012 to a high of 84 homes for $187 million in 2011.
Last year, investors in Japan bought 85 homes for $178 million. This year through August they have bought 34 homes for $67 million.
The total annual spending on million-dollar Oahu homes by buyers from Japan is more than everything combined from other international buyers.
Such dominance from Japan was established several decades ago as Hawaii became a favored tourist destination with convenient air travel and comfortable cultural connections. Today visitors from Japan still represent by far the biggest segment of foreign travelers coming to Hawaii.
A report by Sotheby’s International Realty and research firm Wealth-X said a combination of China’s expanding wealthy class and equity market turbulence is driving investments into luxury Western real estate.
This report estimated that 17 more people became billionaires in China this year, and said Chinese individuals now make up the third-largest share of foreign "ultrahigh net worth" homeowners in the United States, behind only Canada and the United Kingdom. Wealth-X defines ultrahigh-net-worth individuals as people with at least $30 million in net assets.
The million-dollar home purchases on Oahu by international buyers tallied by List Sotheby’s aren’t limited to high-net-worth individuals.
The tally of million-dollar Oahu home purchases is based on data from Title Guaranty Hawaii, which categorizes the origin of buyers by the address they provide when signing deed documents.
In some cases a buyer’s address and where the buyer is from can be different. For instance, property records show a company with a Singapore address bought a $3.3 million Diamond Head home in 2013, while the manager of the company, a hedge fund founder, held a French passport.
Other examples include expatriates, including employees of U.S. companies working in foreign countries, such as investment bankers.
