The Association of Family Offices in Asia has announced a strategic partnership with Chinese international property platform Juwai.com. The alliance will make it easier for high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth Chinese and other wealthy Asian investors to source, evaluate and invest in international real estate, the companies say.
The two partners will jointly screen, review and partner in real estate and other investment opportunities, roll out a joint institutional training program to nurture more quality real estate investment professionals and collaborate on events and functions serving investors, they say in a statement.
“This partnership will ultimately mean more high-net-worth investors from China and other parts of Asia can successfully source and acquire property in Canada,” says Carrie Law, CEO of Juwai.com. “For the real estate industry, this will create new opportunities for development and investment joint ventures and asset sales. Because these are high-net-worth investors and investment consortiums, we’re talking about things like large blocks of units, large developable sites, commercial property and trophy residential assets.”
The association has more than 30 institutional members, as well as hundreds of single-family office members with net worth of more than $50 million, it says.
“Of all the independent organizations that represent wealthy investors, the Association of Family Offices in Asia is the most trusted and forward-looking,” says Law. “By leveraging Juwai’s unique data, market knowledge and exclusive partners and strategic investors, we will be able to source unique real estate investment opportunities that will enable Asian family offices to accumulate wealth for the benefit of future generations.”
She says there are now 1.6 million U.S.-dollar millionaires in mainland China, a new record. Wealth per adult in China has more than quadrupled over the past six years.
“Canada is the fourth most popular country with Chinese buyers, down from third a year ago,” Law says. “The top cities for Chinese investment are Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary.
“Real estate is not the only investment choice of these wealthy investors, but it is an important one. Consumer research in China by FTCR shows that more than 60 per cent of Chinese overseas investors intend to make new overseas real estate investments by 2020.”
