China is one of the fastest growing markets in the world, and has an ever increasing pool of Ultra high and high net worth individuals. China has seen a rapid growth of the number of such high net worth Households over the past 5 years, which has been matched with a similar growth of the total value of investable assets as a result of higher disposable income.

According to the Global Chinese Real Estate Congress, Chinese buyers purchased $50 billion in overseas real estate during the period of 2012, which generated an estimated $1.2 billion in commission for real estate agents all over the world.

The world’s most populous nation has over 63 million Chinese with the wealth to invest in overseas property, and 61% of these Chinese buyers pay in cash. Another interesting statistic to note, over 60% of the China’s wealthy are engaged in overseas investment or immigration, and that 85% of them would like to educate their children overseas. With statistics like these, it is no wonder properties in the Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, Australia, The U.S. and the UK are increasing being marketed in China.

The internet is now a forefront for the battle to snag the rich China buyer. China has an Internet penetration rate of 42.1% with more than 591 million internet users. Combine that with an Internet growth rate of 9.9%, and statistics show that 90 million Chinese search for property online each month. As these statistics show, online portals are the best way to reach this market.

The primary barrier impeding the global real estate community from tapping into the Chinese market is the Great Firewall of China. Websites that are not hosted in China are blocked or experience extremely slow loading speeds. It is also due to this limitation that Property Agents and Agencies worldwide are tapping onto the property portals of China such as E-House (ehousechina.com), Juwai.com and Fang.com (Formerly Soufun.com), and these portals are generating huge revenues off the world’s appetite for the china buyer.

To further reinforce the fact that China buyers are now truly dominating the global scene, Soufun Holdings, whose core business is operating China’s largest property portal, Fang.com, is listed on the New York Stock Market Exchange and is currently valued at around $2.4b.