It has been two months since China, without warning, removed almost all pandemic restrictions overnight. After three years of closed borders, almost no passenger air traffic and isolation from the outside world, China is open to the outside world. Chinese people want to leave.
– You can’t imagine how they spend money. It’s crazy, director Pearce Cheng of the immigration and relocation agency AIMS, which facilitates wealthy Chinese to move to Singapore, told Channel News Asia.
Uncomfortably close to China
The richest Chinese have used the years of pandemic and isolation to reconsider where they want to live and what they want to do with their lives. Other places in Asia entice more than China. Alibaba founder Jack Ma has appeared in Japan, Singapore and Thailand in recent months.
According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, which corresponds to the central bank, there were a total of 400 companies in China in 2020 whose main purpose is to manage assets on behalf of wealthy families. Last year, the number is believed to have reached over 1,500, according to the law firm Dentons Rodyk.
– I would not have been surprised if one out of two family investment companies is from China, says Loh Kia Meng, who heads asset management at the law firm, to Channel News Asia.
For many decades, Hong Kong was seen as a safe haven for wealthy families throughout Asia. China has cracked down hard on democracy in the former British colony and there has been unrest at the stock exchange. The main index plunged to its lowest level since 2007 last autumn.
– Hong Kong is uncomfortably close to China. If I’m Chinese, I want to manage my money somewhere safe. Singapore is probably safer, says director Ryan Lin at Bayfront Law to the industry website AsianInvestor.net.
Record sales of luxury cars
Director Cheng at AIMS helps wealthy Chinese find luxury apartments, arrange places for children in private schools and find drivers and maids. In addition, they must build social networks and mark their arrival in what is one of the world’s most expensive cities.
He attended a party for a client, where 55-year-old “Yamazaki” whiskey was served at over eight million kroner for a bottle.
The noble drops were first distilled by Suntory founder Shinjiro Torii in 1960 and have been allowed to mature in barrels made of mizunar oak. 100 bottles were put up for sale in the international market in 2020.
– Rich Chinese usually belong to the first generation. They have been concerned with making money. When China was locked down and they were working on the zero infection strategy in the country, they had time to take a break, think and ask themselves: what should I do with my money, says lawyer Loh Kia Meng to Asianinvestor.net.
A record number of Rolls-Royce and Bentley models were sold in Singapore in 2021 and 2022. There is a several-year waiting list for the top models to be delivered, according to the Financial Times. Newly arrived Chinese buyers dominate the luxury segment.
The price of the Rolls-Royce Phantom II starts at around two million Singapore dollars (NOK 16 million). In addition, there are special fees for owning a car in the city-state.
At the country club Sentosa Golf Club on the southern tip of Singapore, overlooking one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, foreign members pay 840,000 Singapore dollars (6.4 million kroner), according to Bloomberg.
Looking for large homes
In Singapore, Chinese nationals accounted for 42 percent of all private property sales to foreigners in the first eight months of 2022, according to property consultancy OrangeTee & Tie. Over 20 percent of all home sales for over NOK 38 million went to Chinese people.
Several hundred flights from China land at Thai airports every week. Tourism organizations throughout Southeast Asia have revised their forecasts upwards. Thailand expects more than 25 million visitors this year against less than half a million in 2021. Last year there were 11 million.
China is back in full force and the Chinese have saved up a lot of money through the pandemic, new statistics from the Chinese central bank show. Chinese nationals owned 730,000 apartments in Thailand in 2022, according to statistics published by Thailand Construction News.
– They started buying again in early 2022 when they feared new shutdowns. Chinese buyers prefer large apartments and they want to take possession of the homes immediately as they want to move in right away, says managing director Tritecha Tangmatitham at listed property company Supalai PLC to Bangkok Post.
Chief executive Thongchai Busrapan at the property developer Noble Development, which sells luxury homes in Thailand, tells the newspaper that he sees a shift from the Chinese. Previously, they bought property as an investment.
– They want to live together as a family. They are also looking at detached houses, he tells the newspaper.(Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and/or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases using links, which lead directly to our pages. Copying or other forms of use of all or part of the content may only take place with written permission or as permitted by law. For further terms see here.
