Vietnam ranks among top ten foreign residential property buyers in the US

Foreign buyers purchased a total of 284,455 residential properties in the US, an increase of 32.4 per cent from the previous year. The number of units purchased made up 5 per cent of existing home sales.

According to the report, the average purchase price of foreign buyers in 2017 was $536,852, up 12 per cent from 2016. The median purchase price of foreign buyers was $302,290 in 2017, up 9 per cent.

For the first time since 2007, Vietnamese buyers reached 2 per cent of the total purchases, equal to approximately 5,689 properties. This put Vietnam on the list of the top ten foreign buyers of residential properties in the US, replacing Russia in the ninth place.

Based on the figures in the report, it is estimated that Vietnamese people spent between $1.7-3 billion on US residential properties during the period.

Major foreign buyers of US residential property in term of units purchased (Source: NAR)

In a news release on the NAR website, chief economist Lawrence Yun, said, “The political and economic uncertainty both here and abroad did not deter foreigners from exponentially ramping up their purchases of US propertíe over the past year. While the strengthening of the US dollar in relation to other currencies and steadfast home-price growth made buying a home more expensive in many areas, foreigners increasingly acted on their beliefs that the US is a safe and secure place to live, work, and invest.”

According to the report, Chinese buyers continue to dominate as the top foreign buyers of US residential property in terms of both the number of units purchased (14 per cent of reported purchases) and dollar volume ($31.7 billion worth of residential properties).

Canada, Mexico, India, and the UK followed China in the top five. Canadian buyers spent $19 billion on residential property, ranking second after China. British buyers spent $9.5 billion on US residential properties, slightly more than Mexican ($ 9.3 billion) and Indian buyers ($7.8 billion).

This is consistent with the NAR data that Chinese and British buyers tend to purchase more expensive properties than other foreign buyers.

Properties in Florida, Texas, and California remained the most sought-after by foreign buyers, making up 46 per cent of all foreign sales.