The Philippines ranked inside the top 15 countries attracting the interest of American overseas property buyers in the year ending March 2015, according to research from the 2015 Profile of Home Buying Activity of International Clients produced by the National Association of Realtors.
The country was responsible for more than 2 percent of all overseas buying interest and was placed alongside Jamaica, Germany, France and Brail. It was also Southeast Asia’s only representative in the top 15 most-enquired countries.
Although the survey focused mostly on the purchase of U.S. properties by foreign buyers, a few of the questions addressed the experience of U.S. residents purchasing properties in other countries.
Jed Smith, Managing Director of Quantitative Research for the National Association of Realtors, told PropertyGuru: “Filipinos make up a larger ethnic group than Thais and Malaysians within the United States, so it makes sense that the Philippines constitute a larger share of searches.”
He added that Filipino U.S. residents search for properties in their home country, possibly for retirement, investment or as a residence for their families.
There were more than 2.6 million Filipinos living in the U.S. according to the latest census data from the United States. This compared to just 179,000 Thais and less than 20,000 Malaysians.
The vast majority – approximately 94 percent – of real estate agents reported they did not have a client interested in buying foreign property but among those who did have clients interested in purchasing property abroad, the countries that generated the most inquiries were Mexico, Costa Rica, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, and other countries in Latin America.
Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru Group, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email andrew@propertyguru.com.sg
