Chinese property buyers increasingly evident in the Cape

Hilton Ross, one of our area's most experienced travel agents, has estimated that some 15% of his clients are from China and I have heard that, in 2012, 80 million Chinese people cross one border or another for business or holiday reasons. This number has been increasing year-on-year.

In the Rawson Property Group's experience, Chinese buyers are more interested in the lock-up-and-go/buy-to-let sectional title units of the Cape Peninsula's new developments, for example, Rawson Developers' The Beaumont and The Rondebosch. Trevor Weston-Green, Property Development Analyst for Rawson Developers, confirmed this by saying that in The Beaumont, which has 169 units, already 12 have been taken up by Chinese buyers - and more could come.

Piet van der Merwe, the Rawson Property Group's franchisee for Hout Bay, also confirmed that over the recent summer period some 8% of his prospective buyers had been Chinese.

As in the case of European and North American buyers, Chinese buyers benefit greatly from the exchange rate, which, in effect, makes South African property less than half the price of similar units in China, where property values are rising fast.