Chinese people love to buy property. It’s not only considered a great investment for Chinese people, but it’s also a key part of the culture that involves leaving something useful for their offspring.

But when it comes to buying luxury real estate, do the super rich in China have the same taste and requirements as their counterparts in the developed world? The recently published “Sotheby’s International Realty Luxury Lifestyle Report” shows Chinese preferences are basically “same same, but different.”

The report surveyed affluent consumers in the United States, United Kingdom, Brazil and China.  Compared to the developed world, there are more high net worth individuals in China and they are more likely to purchase a “lifestyle” property as their primary residence.

Among the Chinese surveyed, 98% want a lifestyle property while 74% in the US said the same.

Among those Chinese, 54% want waterfront property.

There was also a big difference in other demands:

A whopping 93% of affluent Chinese consumers surveyed said they would like to make a “legacy home purchase”, which is a property intended to remain in the family or be gifted to children, while only 64% of Americans said the same.

The Affluent Chinese Consumer

Ninety-six percent of affluent Chinese consumers surveyed said they’d bought a property within the past three years.  Wealthy Chinese are not only investing in property, they consider themselves part of the investor class.  Eighty-two percent of Chinese luxury real estate purchasers consider themselves “investors”, while only 67% of Americans think the same.

Here are some additional stats on the priorities of Chinese property investors:

You can read the full report here.