Hudson Valley On Sale to the World?

A prime example was announced last week. The Arden House in Harriman, NY has been purchased by a Chinese website consortium. SouFun Holdings bought the property for $6.5 million, and plans to use the 100,000 square foot house and its 450 acres of woodland property as a conference center. The home was built in 1909 by railroad baron Edward Henry Harriman, and was finished just a few months before he died.

The sale was complicated by several sales restrictions. One was that the buyer had to be a non-profit organization. In this case, the purchaser was The Research Center on Natural Conservation, a non-profit organization held by SouFun. Another restriction was a conservation easement protecting 400 of the property’s 450 acres from development. SouFun is not a stranger to foreign real estate investing, in 2010, it bought another New York property formerly owned by American International Group (AIG) for $46 million . SouFun is a Beijing- based operator of home-furnishings websites, they agreed to buy the Lower Manhattan building for $46 million. “SouFun plans to use the former AIG Training Center as its own global training center to train its expanding management, staff and clients,” according to the company statement.

Last month President Obama advocated the EC-5 program stating “The administration is working to improve and leverage, by a factor of four, the number of entrepreneurs from other countries allowed entry into the United States”. American consumers and the federal government haven’t been able to bail out the sinking U.S. real estate market. Now wealthy Chinese, Canadians and other foreign buyers could get their chance. Last week two U.S. senators including New York’s Senator Chuck Schumer introduced a bill that would allow foreigners who spend at least $500,000 on residential property to obtain visas allowing them to live in the United States.

My business is now over 87% working with international buyers and investors. As an international property specialist I work with immigration attorneys well versed in the lengthy EB-5 and EB-2 Investor visa’s, and global corporations. They are looking for properties from single family homes for corporate executives, to land suitable for development and existing businesses ripe for investment.

This is a time for Realtors well versed in international business or even with language skills to develop the potential to grow their business be it single family homes or commercial. Taking the CIPS designation and opening up the ability to network globally is a good place to start.

Real estate sales may be slow for American buyers, but for foreign investors, this market is on fire!

For more information on investing in the New York Greater Metro or Lower Hudson Valley or for currently available properties for sale, please contact Vanessa Saunders