Dude, who even knows.
Post reblogged from North Alehouse with 16 notes
For whatever reason, first-generation Chinese immigrants love investing in real estate. Where their kids would plow their savings into stocks and bonds and bitcoin, mom and dad would much prefer to own a few rental properties. It’s never quite been explained to me why. Maybe there’s an ingrained preference for the world of atoms over the world of bits. Maybe coming from a background where securities regulations are considerably more, uh, pliable, real estate feels more reliable and less subject to back-room wheeling and dealing.
Whatever the reason though, there’s definitely something ironic about a bunch of people who fled from Communists denouncing them as landlords, now turning around and rushing to prove the Communists’ point.
Asian immigrant businessmen in Portland seem weirdly aggressive at property development. By which I mean stuff like my area is building out, but there are these two buildings that don’t make sense, on irregular lots diagonal to a median-divided street in an area with no foot traffic, built two stories to the lot lines, and it’s like “no way this should happen until better locations are infilled more”.
I dunno, I can think of two things that might contribute
One, if you’re targeting an ethnic/linguistic market – and judging by the tenants and signs so far they are – I guess the particulars of the location don’t matter enough that the cheaper location is worth it – if people want insurance services in Cantonese or specialty foods they’ll take the 5 minutes to park, etc.
Two, a foreign sensibility of what cities are like? Like, “dense retail in odd lot” is par for Hong Kong, or Saigon, or… and I can’t tell if that sensibility works better or not? Maybe the location will be an unexpected drain, maybe the builder (and his funders, and their tenants, and and their insurers, all from the same community) realizes that accessibility by semi or panel truck is overrated in a city of enough density to deliver by those eurovans.
Dunno
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kontextmaschine reblogged this from athrelon and added: Asian immigrant businessmen in Portland seem weirdly aggressive at property development. By which I mean stuff like my...
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illidanstr said: It’s an old cultural message. Want to build a dynasty, own the land
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