Chinese investors build rental holdings in Miami

Chinese investors have joined an international group of buyers in Miami, picking up properties to build a rental portfolio of condos, houses and duplexes by purchasing bank-owned units, Daily Business Review reported.

Like other overseas buyers, Chinese private equity groups see real estate as relatively inexpensive in South Florida, where prices are still depressed from the housing crash in 2008, and the U.S. is considered a safe bet, with excellent private schools, as The Real Deal noted in July.

In 18 months, one group has picked up 20 South Florida properties, according to Concierge Real Estate Services broker Doug Dewitt.

“They’ve been to San Francisco. Then they went to Manhattan. Then they looked in Los Angeles, and when they came down here, they said, ‘Wow, this place is on sale,'” Dewitt reportedly said.

The paper also quotes Miami real estate broker Hagen Hendrix. He says his client, a Chinese investment group, isn’t interesting in anything outside of the mid-$100,000s to mid-$200,000s or the 305 area code.

The entrance of Chinese and other foreign investors follows heavy investments by institutional investors, including the Blackstone equity group and a division of Goldman Sachs, into distressed single-family homes across Florida, to be converted into rental properties that could be sold again quickly. [Daily Business Review] –Emily Schmall