Sometimes newer really is better. And many Chinese homebuyers would say that’s the case when perusing properties for sale in the U.S.
In a recent survey by international real estate portal Juwai.com, Chinese would-be buyers of U.S. real estate ranked from one to 10 how strongly they would consider different types of homes.
Respondents gave the highest score (7.3) to “a brand new home offered by a builder,” compared to “existing home” and “custom-built” home, which scored 5.8 and 5.05 respectively.
Now, Juwai.com is catering to that preference by teaming up with Builders Digital Experience (BDX), which provides over 110,000 new-home listings updated daily. These listings will be displayed in professionally translated Chinese for Juwai.com’s 2 million-plus users who are looking to buy overseas.
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“For the first time in China, consumers will have access to the same pricing, availability and feature information as consumers in the USA,” Juwai.com wrote in the press release announcement.
Matthew Moore, Juwai.com’s Head of the Americas, added, “Some Chinese buyers in the U.S. have a strong preference for new homes, but until today it has been very hard for them to discover or research these listings.”
BDX serves more than 1,000 builder clients nationwide. In addition to staking a claim as the No. 1 new-home listing site — NewHomeSource.com — BDX also maintains partnerships with real estate portals, including realtor.com and Homes.com.
“Our mission is to help builders use the Internet to not only reach buyers but also connect with them,” said Tim Costello, CEO of Builders Digital Experience, in a press release.
“By partnering with Juwai.com and translating new-home listings into Chinese, we are tapping into a significant and proven market opportunity giving our clients access to these 1.3 billion potential buyers.”
Chinese buyers are attracted to the new build option for cultural reasons, whether they are investors or intend to live in the home, Moore explained in an emailed statement.
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According to the survey, this demographic also puts safe neighborhoods (82 percent of the total), convenience (63 percent) and proximity to good schools (57 percent) at the top of their priority list.
“With domestic buyers, builders spend a lot of effort emphasizing the quality of the homes they build, but with Chinese buyers they need to do just as much to communicate why the community over all is an attractive place to live,” Moore added.
Most of the time, Moore said, these buyers will end up purchasing already-existing homes. But “new” resonates in their mind as “in better condition” than a used property.
You can’t always get what you want, but it looks like a large portion of Chinese buyers just got one step closer.