Chinese investors can now use Auction.com to buy real estate

Shanghai-based Juwai.com formed venture with American website for users in China

From left: Auction.com CEO Jeffrey Frieden and Juwai.com CEO Simon Henry
From left: Auction.com CEO Jeffrey Frieden and Juwai.com CEO Simon Henry

Auction.com plans to market U.S. real estate to Chinese buyers.

Shanghai-based Juwai.com, an international property website, has formed a venture that will open up American assets — apartments, hotels, retail spaces and office buildings — to Chinese speakers in mainland China, Bloomberg reported. U.S. homes could also be added.

In the six years ending in 2014, Chinese investors spent $39 billion on global real estate, according to the website. In 2008, that number was $92 million.

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“Auction.com will help us give Chinese buyers more of what they are looking for, exclusive commercial listings that are accessible to them online, in China and in their own language,” Juwai.com Chief Executive Officer Simon Henry said in the statement cited by Bloomberg.

Chinese investors have been very active in New York City’s luxury real estate market. Anbang Insurance Group purchased the Waldorf Astoria for $1.95 billion — the biggest transaction ever for a hotel in the U.S. — earlier this year. [Bloomberg] — Claire Moses