London - The super rich investors responsible for London's
prime real estate bubble are adding California to their wish lists, lured by
bargains offering crisis-defying returns as an overdue churn in the United
States property market finally gets under way.
Wealthy European and Asian investors who have dominated the
market for addresses in London's most fashionable neighborhoods are frequently
outbidding locals for assets in the Golden State, US real estate brokers report
- and banks, long shackled by the volume of distressed property on their books,
are in the mood to cut deals.
"It is now London and Los Angeles, not Shanghai or
Moscow, that interests the cash-rich international investor," said Simon
Lyons, managing director of global property group Enstar Capital, who is making
regular trips to the US in search of bargains.
As uncertainty stifles global financial markets, real estate
with strong rental prospects in key cities across the United States is again
becoming an asset of choice for the yield-hungry international investor.
Data released this week by the National Association of
Realtors showed that international sales reached $82.4bn in the year to March
31, up from $66.4bn in 2011.
The Chinese are now the second-largest foreign buyers of US
homes (behind Canadians), accounting for 11% of sales in the year to March
2012, up from 9% in the previous year.
Cash purchases accounted for 62% of international sales and
the average price paid by international buyers was $400 000, against the
overall US average of $212 000.
As the US jobs market expands, there are signs that the
worst may be over for the property market that spawned the subprime mortgage
maelstrom and the world's deepest banking crisis since the Great Depression.
To capitalise on increasing confidence, Los Angeles-based
asset manager TCW has unveiled plans to raise up to $250m for a fund enabling
wealthy investors to buy foreclosed homes from government agencies and lenders.
While lenders are still keen to avert foreclosures by
extending loans, so-called distressed inventory is starting to sell because
banks are now in a better position to absorb greater losses and free up
capacity on their balance sheets.
David Parnes, a director at Bond Street Partners, a Los
Angeles-based realtor specialising in high-end luxury and investment property,
said that Los Angeles is enjoying its biggest influx of foreign capital for
years.
"Investors are now snapping up foreclosures in greater
numbers because comparatively low property prices mean they are able to achieve
strong returns," he said.
"Prices in LA are showing to 60 to 70% discounts
against their equivalent in Manhattan."
Parnes points out many reasons to explain why the world's
super rich are making a beeline for California.
The state is the financial hub of the US West Coast, with
Los Angeles already home to the highest number of foreign-born billionaires and
Fortune 500 company CEOs outside New York.
The 2011 Wealth-X World Ultra Wealth Report said that Asia
Pacific has an estimated 42 525 ultra high net worth individuals with a
combined wealth of $6.2 trillion, and many are looking to park wealth in key
Western cities to diversify their holdings.
European ultra high net worth entrepreneurs active in Asia's
fast-growing economies are also acquiring bases on the US West Coast to benefit
from reduced travel times to the region and time zones better suited to those
business interests.
In Silicon Valley, Russian billionaire and Facebook backer
Yuri Milner shelled out $100m in March 2011 on one of the most expensive
single-family US homes ever sold. Moscow-based Milner is expected to use the
French Chateau-style mansion as his second home, Parnes said.
Adam Fenner, an executive at California's Skyline Wilshire
Investment Partners, which sources overseas capital for high quality US real
estate operators and funds, said that overseas investors are again viewing the
US as "a safer haven".
"The very existence of the eurozone is now in doubt,
whereas investors believe that the US is fundamentally stable," he said.
Parnes agrees. "From an investment standpoint, the view
is even more positive: people are searching for returns which aren't available
with other investments, and real estate yields are now looking very attractive,
given recent price adjustments."