With China's policies geared towards making sure the money stays within the country, New York's luxury real estate market is suffering a shortage of Chinese buyers. According to Quartz, this has also shown how there are concerns about the level of US dollar debt the real estate developers have incurred. The policies are also why New York real estate is feeling the loss of Chinese developers and investors.
The Chinese have been one of the major "movers and shakers" in New York's real estate market, only behind Canada, Germany, and Denmark. However, with trade war tensions and money invested in the US becoming valuable back home, the Chinese have started to slowly back away. Many of these developers have also decided to offload massive New York properties to pay off their debts.
Ratings from 2015 to 2018 showed just how the property owners offloaded their assets. From $5 billion in 2015, these properties went all the way up to beyond $7.5 billion in 2016, which was their "breakout year." From then on, it's a tale of offloading assets as these dropped to just a bit below $2.5 billion in 2017 and to almost non-existent-perhaps even slightly above $1 billion-in 2018.
The Real Deal noted that this was such a drastic change from Chinese policies from way back when they were still buying properties for record-setting amounts. These were for Manhattan luxury buildings and it wasn't too long ago; now, they have all but retreated from buying city property, with issues being dealt with inside their country and out.
The Chinese government imposed a policy of local spending, trying to keep the money domestically to jumpstart a stimulus. They are currently expecting a slowdown of the economy because of an economic stall happening in the Asian region and far beyond-the world, in essence. However, they are still in a trade war with the US is not helping matters concerning reviving their economy.
Other investments into firms are also being looked into. The Chinese government is thinking of cracking down on "shadow banking" as well as other outbound investments, although other Chinese-made deals in New York appear to be holding steady. The purchase of One Chase Manhattan Plaza by Fosun International is a good example, now rebranded as 28 Liberty.
With the current situation, it's safe to say that Chinese money is staying local. It's probably for the best, considering that the economic slowdown might happen suddenly.
