The doors are set to be thrown open to the largest source of travellers arriving from China, according to information provided by Kashif Ansari, co-founder and group chief executive officer of Juwai IQI.
China's borders will reopen on January 8, 2023, turning the current trickle of Chinese travellers leaving the country into a burgeoning torrent of visitors, business travellers, students, and real estate investors.
"This will be the first opportunity in three years for most Chinese to visit overseas real estate markets," he said.
China imposed travel restrictions, decreased the number of passports it issued, and mandated Covid quarantine for Chinese returning from abroad during the pandemic.
In only a few days, China will transition from being essentially closed off to being almost completely open.
According to Kashif, Beijing will relax most restrictions starting on January 8 and Chinese citizens will once again be permitted to travel abroad.
He said that, in addition to visiting family and friends, studying abroad, doing business, and travelling, property investing is a priority for travellers.
He asserts that Juwai IQI data on Chinese buyer inquiries shows that Australia, the United States, and Canada were the top three destinations for Chinese buyers of real estate in December.
Malaysia is on the list of top 10 countries to invest in real estate. The other countries on the list are Japan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, and South Korea.
"We expect Chinese outbound travel and accompanying property investment to increase rapidly in January from its current very low level. We can't bounce back to 2019 levels all at once. Outbound travel from China will snowball and may reach 2019 levels by mid-2024.
"Chinese international property investment is already beginning to recover from its pandemic lows. Depending on the destination, Chinese property investment dropped by 50 per cent to 60 per cent during the pandemic," he said.
Kashif said that Juwai IQI will issue a report soon to forecast how fast and far Chinese international property investment will recover in 2023 given the new policy conditions.