Trump’s trade war means less Chinese real estate investment

In the last few decades, much has been made of China’s rise in the global economy, and up until recently, the country’s rich investors were poised to be dominant players in the U.S. real estate industry. In 2016, Chinese buyers were pouring nearly $10 billion a year into the New York City real estate market, making them the largest foreign investors by far. Since then, that figure has plummeted. Chinese buyers spent only $1 billion on NYC properties in 2018, putting them far behind Canadian, German, and even Dutch developers. This trend has been reported across countless other cities previously popular with Chinese investors. What caused Chinese money to exit the American market so abruptly? There are two main factors, and unfortunately, they compound each other. President Trump’s trade policies have complicated Chinese investment in the U.S., and China has adopted increasingly restrictive capital outflow regulations, making it much more difficult for Chinese investors to move money out of the country.