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  • So when we talk about Chinese investors, I was kind of surprised that they were the second biggest after Canada.

  • Talk about how Chinese investors are different from other foreign investors.

  • What are they looking at, how do they treat their investment and property differently?

  • Sure, thank you for having me.

  • Actually when you think about the Chinese investor in general right, they're looking for the same type of return,

  • the same type of stability that any foreign buyer will look in the U.S.

  • And I think that's the biggest thing for Chinese. The U.S. is a safe haven for their money.

  • When they're talking about, when you said Chinese now is number one, instead of Canada,

  • you're talking about 29 billion dollars that have been invested over the last year.

  • It's a huge number. And not only for the commercial real estate, not only I mean, here in New York they bought the Waldorf Astoria.

  • And that was what, 1.9 billion dollars. So when you see that and other commercial, they're eating up companies like, construction companies.

  • So they're really looking into the real estate market, not only for "let's buy trophy properties in New York",

  • "let's buy trophy properties in LA," but they're also looking at the building.

  • Let's buy land and let's partner up, let's do it the right way.

  • Let's partner up with local, a specialist, local developers that can help us and really bring this and build something.

  • Scarlet: So they're entering in at an earlier point in the cycle. You mentioned the Waldorf Astoria,

  • that of course used to house dignitaries during (Peggy: That's Correct.), you know, the United Nations general assembly,

  • but there are now questions over whether it is safe for U.S. officials like the president to stay there.

  • What kind of political pushback are you seeing to Chinese ownership of landmark properties or trophy properties?

  • We really haven't seen any. I think that the U.S. is really welcoming that type of investment.

  • And I think that follows also the residential trend.

  • You know, as the big corporations are investing money, also the typical Chinese buyer,

  • who the natural markets have been, New York, California, they're looking at other markets like Miami to invest.

  • And really in general, when you're seeing in this type of investment and this type of money being imported by these large corporations,

  • you know, the parents are looking for what, education, education, education. (Scarlet: Sure, sure.)

  • I want my kids in the U.S. and what better lead than some of the big corporations in China investing here.

  • So talk about how the Chinese yuan devaluation in August played into all this.

  • Did it slow the flood down a little bit, did you see any kind of impact?

  • You know, I actually saw a very positive impact, because they have so much uncertainty.

  • That they want their flight to safety, they're almost, you know,

  • they remind me of the south American buyers buying into Miami to put their money into their safety deposit box in the sky.

  • I see the Chinese also doing that.

  • I mean, overall they're still up in the stock market, but the uncertainty of them in general I think, it really helped us in the U.S.

  • Ok, so that yuan devaluation perhaps pushing more people to look into U.S. property. (Peggy: I think so, I believe.)

So when we talk about Chinese investors, I was kind of surprised that they were the second biggest after Canada.

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