Do Chinese buy houses in US in just a few days? No, they do not.

Chinese buyers spent $27.3 billion in US real estate market over the past year becoming the largest foreign group of buyers. Many people think Chinese buyers just bring a suitcase with cash and buy a property within one or two days. However, this is not true. On the contrary, Chinese buyers usually think carefully and do adequate research before they make an offer. East-west Property Advisors analyzed the timeline for Chinese investors to buy a house in the US. The result turns out that over 60% qualified buyers take longer than six months before they buy a home​. One reason contributing to the prolonged timeline is the stricter capital control efforts made by China government. Once they arrive in the US, they spend 17 days for property viewing on average but some may buy within 3 or 4 days.

Most of the buyers (64%) continue to mention education and immigration as main reasons to invest in the US real estate market. Families who have a child accepted to study in the US or families who are approved for a greencard are typically investing in an American home within six months after school admission or greencard approval. In both cases, the start date of a new school semester will drive the timing around the search for a house. If the Chinese buyer is merely looking for an investment property to rent out, the timing becomes longer as the investor is often comparing many cities and options to invest in. 

The longer duration of search in the US could also be explained by the stricter enforcement of capital controls.  The constraint of transferring a maximum of 50,000 USD per person out of China has been in place for a long time but this is now being monitored more closely by the China government. As the average budget in the study done by East-West Property is 870,000 USD, this is causing some Chinese citizens to delay their date of a house purchase in the US.

Education and immigration remain the main reasons for investing in the US and this is also reflected by data on the locations in which the Chinese are searching. New York, the Bay area and Los Angeles account for 39% of the buyers in the study.

The idea of Chinese buying houses in cash in a matter of a few days is a misconception and does not reflect the reality of what most of the Chinese buyers go through when buying a house in the US.