Aloha, friends! I just got back from a super fun week in San Diego and Los Angeles. While I was mostly there on a vacation break with my lovely lady, I did sneak in a bit of business here and there. Part of that was catching up with my friends JD Esajian of “Flip This House” and his wife Debora. Both are not just friends and great people, but also incredibly motivated “achievers” who target goals and meet or exceed them. It’s important to surround yourself with the “doers” of the world, and I’m fortunate to have people like JD, Debora and the rest of the FortuneBuilders crew (Than Merrill, JD’s brother Paul Esajian and more) in my corner to help bring their highly successful business model of helping homeowners while creating great investment opportunities to our lovely state of Hawaii. No matter your goals — business or personal — go find someone who’s already successful and spend some quality time with them learning how they got to where they are today. Don’t reinvent the wheel!
Ok, moving on. I read today that China Eastern Airlines is set to become the FIRST airline to fly DIRECT flights regularly between China and Hawaii. This is HUGE NEWS. Many people have witnessed or heard of the increased Chinese interest in Hawaii or the local tourism authority’s goals of attracting more Chinese tourists here. Well, it appears the inevitable next step is here and it’s a landmark one. It’s my opinion that regular direct flights is a clear indication of a strong and steady market for Chinese visitors to Hawaii.
And while some may respond that these may just be vacationers intending only to rent a Waikiki vacation condo for a week before returning home to Beijing, Shanghai or Xi’an, I say that even the one-week beach vacationer can easily be converted to a real estate buyer. I think in the very near future, probably within the next 2-3 years, we’ll see a noticeable spike in Chinese ownership of Hawaii real estate. While local buyers may be sitting on the fence waiting for a clear signal of the bottom of the market (timing a market is rarely good advice), it’s very possible that Chinese buyers will take advantage of the low prices and still low interest rates and make a big splash in the Hawaii scene. Of course, with the Chinese economic boom over the past decade, it’s likely that many will be cash buyers anyway, even further easing their entry into the Hawaii real estate market.
Do you agree?? What do you feel are the implications of direct flights between China and Hawaii? Is this the beginning of new relations or just another attempt to fill hotel vacancies in Waikiki, Kaanapali and elsewhere?