One of the biggest, most important investment themes of the 21st century might be this: People don’t want to breathe poisonous air or live with pervasive corruption.
China has both in spades, and it also has some of the world’s wealthiest people.
Marketwatch writes today about rich people lining up to leave China:
First it was reported that mainlanders made up 91% of all applications for investment visas going to Australia since the scheme was launched in 2012. But this was small beer compared to Canada, as it was disclosed there was a backlog of 57,000 applications from China for investment-immigrant visas. The South China Morning Post reported 45,000 mainlanders were seeking to emigrate to British Columbia alone, with an estimated minimum combined wealth of not less than 90 billion Hong Kong dollars ($11.6 billion).
That kind of investment flow will continue to make Vancouver one of the most overvalued real estate markets in the world and add a modest tailwind to the Canadian dollar. Outside of that, Canada is a large enough country to absorb that kind of investment but New Zealand is much smaller and don’t underestimate the money flowing there.
