FORT LAUDERDALE, FL—The United States has become an increasingly attractive market for Chinese investment and the rate of investment will likely accelerate due to the recent slowdown in China's previously booming economy coupled with Chinese investors' desire to diversify their investments. In the past 12 months, Chinese developers, funds and individuals invested approximately $5.9 billion in US commercial properties and $28.6 billion in US residential properties. According to the Los Angeles Times, Chinese investment in US businesses may increase from its current level of $50 billion to $200 billion by the end of 2020, which provides a tremendous opportunity for US businesses to capitalize on this trend.

Although Chinese investment clearly is a great source of funding for US real estate projects, many US businesses and developers have mixed feelings about dealing with Chinese investors. In addition to the obvious challenges posed by cultural differences and the language barrier, there are common misconceptions that Chinese investors are unpredictable, change their minds frequently, make unusual requests, are more difficult to negotiate with and take significantly longer to make decisions than their US counterparts.

In a series of three articles or episodes, we will attempt to demystify Chinese investors by providing insight into common goals, concerns and constraints that are particular to Chinese investors which explain the rationale behind their decision making process. Each article will address the following different types of Chinese investors: Chinese developers, Chinese funds and investment companies, and Chinese individuals. In this Episode 1, we will focus on the Chinese developers, which consist of companies developing real estate projects in China as their primary business.