Small Chinese builders are following their larger brethren into the U.S., betting that the recovering American housing sector will help them expand as China struggles with its cooling market.
Landsea Green Properties, a Chinese home builder listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, has started residential projects spanning hundreds of planned homes in San Francisco, New Jersey and in Ventura County, California, near Los Angeles.
Also on the West Coast, Starryland USA, a subsidiary of Chinese developer Fuxing Huiyu Real Estate intends to build upscale homes in development projects in San Francisco's Bay Area; in Orange County, California; and near Seattle. Starryland's parent is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
Executives of both companies said their houses will be built with American labour and mostly target U.S. buyers. "Our U.S. operation will function in every aspect like a U.S. home builder," said John Ho, managing director of Landsea's U.S. division, Landsea Holdings. "Our people all are local. The only thing that makes us different is that our equity and background is Chinese."
The builders will cater, at least in part, to Chinese buyers looking to move to the U.S., a category that has risen rapidly of late. A survey released in July by the National Association of Realtors found that Chinese buyers purchased US$22 billion of U.S. homes in the 12-month period ended in March at an average price of US$590,826, accounting for 24 per cent of home purchases by foreigners by dollar volume. That is up from US$12.8 billion, or 19 per cent, in the previous 12 months.
Many Chinese buyers are looking to park money abroad in case political winds change in China. Many also want to buy homes for children or relatives attending universities in the U.S. They are anticipating U.S. home values will continue to recover.
Chinese builders, meanwhile, are venturing abroad in part because of weakness at home. They are dealing with huge gluts of newly built but unoccupied apartments outside of cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Many have cut prices, which has crimped profit margins. And tightened credit standards in China have hampered demand.
"One of the reasons that we are looking abroad is for safer assets that offer steady returns in a mature market," said Jay Hu, a management consultant at Starryland.
To be sure, some U.S. home builders and developers also are targeting Asian buyers. FivePoint Communities, a joint venture of its chief executive, Emile Haddad, and home builder Lennar Corp, requires that builders in its California developments include such amenities as separate grandparent quarters in homes for multigenerational families.
Many of FivePoint's builders include feng shui design touches, such as prohibiting a home's sink and stove from directly facing each other in the kitchen, lest the homeowner encounter the negative energy of standing between symbolic fire and water.
Also, Landsea and Starryland are following bigger Chinese builders that have established U.S. bridgeheads. In June, state-owned developer Greenland Holding Group of China bought a majority stake in a 15-tower apartment complex under development in Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards project from Forest City Ratner Cos.
Chinese home builder China Vanke last year joined with Tishman Speyer Properties to build two condo towers totalling 655 units in San Francisco.
Still, Landsea and Starryland have the capital and experience to gain a foothold in the U.S. market. Landsea sold 12,000 homes in China last year and had revenue of US$1.85 billion.
In the U.S., both are based in the Los Angeles area, and both are light on U.S. employees -- with eight each -- because they are doing more development than construction.
Landsea intends to operate initially as a developer, buying land and overseeing projects but sometimes hiring other firms to handle construction. It has teamed with a division of Lennar to develop a 200-unit condo tower in Weehawken, N.J. It also is developing 109 townhomes in Dublin, Calif., and single-family and active-adult projects near Los Angeles.
Landsea made its name in the Chinese home-building market by focusing on environmentally friendly details such as rainwater-retention systems and geothermal heating and cooling systems. Landsea's Mr. Ho anticipates selling prices will range from US$600,000 to well into the millions of dollars, partly because it is building in particularly expensive markets.
Starryland's U.S. projects under development include 100 single-family homes near San Francisco, more than 200 homes near Seattle and a complex of more than 800 condos in Orange County, California.
Developers look to expand as China struggles with cooling market.
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