Apart from becoming very aggressive in capturing foreign markets, like European imperialists in colonial days ( see my blog ' Getting kicked out of China ' on justicekatju.blogspot.in ), the Chinese have in recent years become some of the biggest chors in the world. With their huge amount of corruption money from China, many of them have bought valuable real estate in the Bay Area in California, New York, Vancouver and indeed all over North America.
For a property worth 2 million dollars they will offer 3 million. Moreover they will pay the entire sale price immediately in down payment, instead of taking a mortgage, as most North Americans do. Naturally the sellers prefer their bids.
A relative of mine in Vancouver where I stayed recently for a few weeks told me that a house in front of his was bought by a Chinese for 12 million dollars an year back, but the Chinese has not lived in it for a single day. Obviously the Chinese are using such real estate for parking their ill gotten wealth. They usually buy these properties not in their real name, say Li Ti Chang, but under some assumed name e.g. Thomas Liu, to avoid detection.
Moreover the tax laws in North America are such that while one has to disclose his other assets in his tax returns, e.g. bank accounts, fixed deposits, shares, etc one does not have to disclose his real estate assets.
The result of all this is that real estate prices have shot up in many cities in North America, and the local people are facing difficulty in buying houses, as they have become too expensive.
