Chinese bid for New York Waldorf Astoria approved

Chinese buyers have been snapping up property all over the world in the past few months, although the wave of Chinese purchasers snapping up distressed assets in Ireland failed to materialise.

One of the biggest prizes yet, and one of the most symbolic purchases, has just been approved – Anbang insurance group has just bought the New York Waldorf Astoria Hotel for $1.95 billion (€1.72bn).

This sum works out at €10,300 per sq m, the highest price paid for a standing US building by a Chinese buyer, according to CBRE, and one of the highest prices ever paid for a hotel in the US.

It’s also a sign of how many Chinese investors are keen to set themselves up with investments outside of China. Anbang is a relatively small player in China at 35th in the table of Chinese insurers.

With relations increasingly strained between the US and China, the US Committee on Foreign Investment had investigated the sale, citing security concerns. But it gave the go-ahead for the purchase of the Waldorf Astoria from Hilton Worldwide.