By Andrew Batt:
America
has voted and Barack Obama has won, but what will the vote mean for the
increasing number of overseas property buyers and investors from
Southeast Asia who are looking stateside?
‘Don’t count on the
election to boost housing’ screamed the headline on one of the United
States most-read real estate news websites yesterday. Most industry
observes shared the same view; nothing much will change short term in
the U.S. housing markets regardless of who the next incumbent of the
Oval Office will be.
The latest government housing data paints a
somewhat encouraging picture with new home sales recording a two-year
high in September and foreclosures falling in 62 percent of US cities
during the third quarter.
Yet housing issues were, according to
exit polls conducted by The Associated Press and U.S. television
stations, pretty low in the minds of American voters on Tuesday. Rising
prices and unemployment were cited, understandably, as the main
concerns.
The question on the minds of many overseas property
investors is whether, in general, property prices in the U.S. have hit
the bottom. There’s no clear answer to this because in some places
prices have been rising for more than a year, while in others there’s
arguably further to fall.
Some kind of overseas property buyers’
tax, similar to that introduced in Singapore in December 2011, would
certainly win fans at home. It wouldn’t be a surprise, and indeed could
well form part of future housing and property policies – especially when
the market really starts to take off.
Foreign buyers of U.S.
property focus focus their attentions on three key states. Florida
account for the vast majority – more than 57 percent – with Michigan
(13%) and New York (11%) occupying second and third spot. Together these
three states account for more than four of every five foreign property
purchase in the United States. Yet the proportion of overseas buyers in
the U.S. is still small – just 8.9 percent in the year ending March 2012
according to the National Association of Realtors.
Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru,
said: “Property buyers and investors from Southeast Asia have been
watching developments in the United States with interest. Even last
weekend there was a New York property investment opportunity being
showcased in Singapore, and properties from throughout the country have
been selling well this year. It will likely be several months before the
President starts to fine tune policies which have the potential to
impact overseas buyers.