Brooklyn’s brand trumps Manhattan’s among Chinese buyers

Chinese real estate buyers with an eye on New York City now prefer Brooklyn to Manhattan.

As a borough, Brooklyn has drawn the most interest from Chinese buyers, according to data exclusively provided to The Real Deal by Chinese international property and real estate marketing site Juwai.com.

Manhattan ranked second in buyers’ searches and queries about New York City real estate, followed by Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island in fifth place. The numbers are pulled from online activity such as page views, searches, search results and inquiries on the Juwai site.

“The data show that Brooklyn is the most intriguing borough for Chinese, but they are still learning about it,” Andrew Taylor, Juwai.com co-CEO said in a release. “They aren’t as familiar with the many attractive individual neighborhoods within Brooklyn as they are with the name of the borough itself.”

Chinese buyers will spend roughly $8.2 billion on property in the U.S. in 2013, according to Juwai, with an eye on investment properties for the long term.

“The fact that Chinese real estate buyers are looking at Brooklyn as a whole, but aren’t yet sure about which neighborhood to focus on, is an opportunity for agents to establish their own area as the top destination in the borough,” Taylor said in the release. — Julie Strickland