Juwai.com hosted a successful online event for Hong Kong, China-based cross-border real estate buyers on Saturday 28 March that achieved 93,800 views. 

The largest share of the mostly Hong Kong-based consumers who watched Juwai.com's Facebook Live seminar were men aged 35 to 44.

They signed on for some or all of a five-hour live online event that answered their questions about buying property overseas, obtaining visas, and becoming residents of the world.

Developers, agents and service providers from Malaysia, Australia, Portugal, Turkey, the USA, and Thailand, took part.

Each of these industry representatives used the Juwai Live online event to help the Hong Kong, China-based consumers with their questions about purchasing, visas, and market trends.

They also marketed their own property and services.

Hong Kong-based Chinese buyers of overseas real estate have additional buying power today.

Because the Hong Kong dollar is paired to the US dollar, it has been gaining strength along with the American greenback.

The US dollar has climbed rapidly in the past month as global investors have rushed to buy safe American assets.

"The Hong Kong dollar is up 15.3 per cent against the Australian dollar, 10.5 per cent against the British pound, 8.6 per cent against the Thai baht, 8.1 per cent against the Canadian dollar, 6.9 per cent against the Malaysian ringgit, 4.3 per cent against the Japanese yen, and 2.6 per cent against the euro," said Juwai IQI Executive Chairman Georg Chmiel.

"In each case, that growth is against the recent low versus the same currency.

"In effect, Hong Kong buyers are now getting a 15 per cent discount in Australia, an 8 per cent discount in Canada, and a 10 per cent discount in the UK.

"In almost every market where Hong Kong buyers are significantly active, they can buy property much cheaper now than just a couple of weeks ago.

"For a Toronto apartment that costs C$500,000, that means a savings of about HK$222,000.

Mr Chmiel said exchange rates are not the only factor pushing up Hong Kong buyer enquiries on international property.

"There is a triple whammy in play," said Mr Chmiel.

"Exchange rates make the Hong Kong dollar more powerful, Hong Kong demand for global property is just as strong as ever, and life in Hong Kong is slowly starting to get back to normal after the social distancing measures.

"All of that goes to explain why our online event over the weekend was so successful.

"Online is certainly a partial replacement for offline events, but we are not giving up on the latter.

"Even in the age of the Coronavirus, we think the best strategy is a mix of both.

That's why we are now laying plans for our June Juwai Overseas Expo, which will help the real estate industry reach an estimated more than 600 Chinese investors with desires to grow their investment portfolios."

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