Florida remains top investment destination for foreign buyers

For foreigners investing in the U.S., Florida continues to remain a favourite destination.

 A report released by National Association of Realtors (NAR) showed Florida accounting for 26 percent of international sales, with South Americans, Canadians and Europeans buying a number of residential properties here.

“Europeans like Florida for the sun and proximity. The state is easy to get to by air and many Euro-tourists are familiar with the state via previous visits, especially to the Orlando theme parks. And Latin Americans have long viewed Miami as their home away from home,” the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Increasing investments from Latin America and Europe is also due to the sales model adopted in Florida, a report in Forbes stated. “Latin Americans and Europeans are used to paying in cash for real estate. American’s are not. What we’re doing with our Brickell House property in Miami is telling people that they can pay us quarterly while the project is being built so that by the time it is done in two years, you have paid for almost 70% of your home,” Forbes quoted Harvey Hernandez, chairman of the Newgard Development Group, a luxury property developer in Miami.

“This is the best way to buy it. Or you can wait for the project to be complete, like Americans do, and pay about 40 percent more,” he says.

Apart from location, price too plays a significant role. For instance the Tampa Bay Times says that “a typical Florida home that sold in 2006 for about $260,000 now sells for less than $140,000.”

Meanwhile, other states that recorded increasing foreign investment are Arizona (7%), California (11%), Texas (7%), Georgia (4%) and New York (4%).

Interestingly, international clients who have invested in residential properties in the U.S., too, saw a significant increase over the last one year, NAR’s ‘Profile of International Home buying Activity 2012’ report shows. International clients accounted for 4.8 percent of the total sales in the US. The volume of sales saw an increase of 24 percent in the last one year.

Clients from Canada, China, Mexico, India and the United Kingdom account for 55 percent of transactions. “A number of factors influence foreign buyers’ decision to invest in U.S. real estate – aninvestment, for portfolio diversification, for vacation purposes, as a place to live, etc,” the report said.
Buyers also tend to choose destination based on their countries of origin, the report said. For instance, Europeans are usually located on the East Coast whereas Asians prefer the West Coast, as the distance from their home country to the state location is short.