Las Vegas partnership seeks to convert China malaise into condo sales

A local partnership is looking to convert economic uncertainty in China into condominium sales.

DK Las Vegas has sent executives to two big real estate trade shows in China this month to build ties with the country’s brokerage and investment communities.

“The Chinese have become a major force in markets around the world,” said Uri Vaknin, a partner in California-based investment firm KRE Capital, which co-owns DK Las Vegas with Dune Real Estate Partners of New York. “We want to appeal to a broader market of middle-class and upper middle-class Chinese.”

The Chinese aren’t new to real estate investing.

Since the recession, Chinese nationals looking for value buys in recovering economies have snapped up U.S. real estate. By mid-2014, China ranked No. 2 among international feeder markets for investors in U.S. real estate, behind only Canada, according to a July 2014 survey from the National Association of Realtors. From March 2013 to March 2014, Chinese real estate buys across the United States surged 72 percent, to $22 billion a year.

But Chinese interest in U.S. real estate kicked into even higher gear in late 2015, after the Shanghai Stock Exchange shed 30 percent of its value in three weeks as investors who borrowed to buy stocks sold holdings to satisfy their loans. China’s stock markets swooned another 18 percent in January, activating trading halts.

What’s more, China’s economy saw its slowest annual growth in 25 years in 2015, though gross domestic product still grew at a healthy 6.9 percent, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said in January.

For DK Las Vegas, sales to Chinese nationals and Chinese-Americans surged in lockstep: Both groups today make up about a third of buyers at the company’s Spanish Palms neighborhood at 5250 S. Rainbow Blvd. Now, DK wants to boost the share of Chinese buyers at its other local properties, including One Las Vegas at 8255 Las Vegas Blvd. South, and The Ogden at 150 Las Vegas Blvd. North.

The trend at Spanish Palms makes sense to Robert Lind, managing director of local investment advisory firm Berkshire Bridge Capital.

“As the economy staggers in China, the question around the world becomes, ‘Where’s the most stable place to invest today?’ The United States is a much less risky place to invest than many others,” Lind said.

Las Vegas in particular has investment upside, Vaknin said. The market is still roughly 30 percent below 2006 peak housing prices, and that means both value and the potential to capitalize on an improving market, Vaknin said.

According to one of DK Las Vegas’ business partners in China, Las Vegas is No. 13 on a list of major U.S. markets in which the Chinese have bought real estate in significant amounts, he added.

So the company has methodically bolstered its marketing efforts in recent months. A model at The Ogden got a subtle makeover to reflect the lifestyle of a Chinese couple. At Chinese New Year in February, DK launched an advertising blitz in magazines, on Facebook and through billboards targeting Chinese buyers. The company invited brokers who serve Chinese buyers to come and see its properties.

The initiative paid off in additional eyeballs, but converting the attention into sales will require an extra touch.

“Chinese people want to get to know you and understand who your company is,” Vaknin said. “They’re investing not just in your product, but also in the strength of your people. They want to know we are a strong organization.”

So Vaknin and DK Las Vegas’ marketing director, Shahn Douglas, are in China through April 20, where they’re attending the Beijing Spring Property Expo and and the Juwai Global Developer Summit. The events will put DK Las Vegas in front of at least 40,000 show attendees, including individual property buyers and the brokers who represent them.

“We want to develop relationships. This is not a short-term thing for us,” Vaknin said.

The timing is ideal to target Chinese buyers, Lind said.

Still, focusing on that segment also has potential pitfalls, he said. For starters, owner-occupiers who buy homes to live in don’t always want investors as neighbors.

But Vaknin said lender rules require DK Las Vegas to cap investor shares in each property at 30 percent to 50 percent of units, and the company “doesn’t even plan on hitting those percentages.”

“We are very cognizant of (investor percentages). We track it on a weekly basis,” Vaknin said. “We are not heavily focused on positioning to investors. But you should always have some investors in a property, because they show strength. They show that people believe your property is a good value.”

Also, the massive Panama Papers document leak earlier this week called attention to how foreign investors use shadowy limited liability corporations to hide questionable financial transactions. The revelations have forced calls for legal reforms that would make it harder to conceal wealth, including through real estate purchases. Such reforms could hurt developers or marketing firms that rely on international buyers.

”If I were to disclose risks to investors, that would be one,” Lind said.

But many of DK Las Vegas’ Chinese buyers aren’t trying to stash wealth, Vaknin said. About 70 percent of them will use their condos as second homes, he estimated.

“It’s not just the stock market — it’s also pollution and foodborne diseases,” he said. “Parents are scared about their children’s future in China. They want a safe haven outside of the country in case things get worse, and they like to come with friends and create communities wherever they go.”

Contact Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com. Find @_JRobison on Twitter.