Los Angeles Mayoral candidate and TV personality Spencer Pratt recently revealed that Chinese buyers were the largest purchasers of land in the Pacific Palisades area, one of the locations where a major fire occurred in Los Angeles last year. This has heightened tensions in the local real estate market and raised concerns about national security in the United States.
Pratt, speaking on the podcast of popular host Joe Rogan on Tuesday, claimed that Chinese buyers were using New Zealand companies to acquire California real estate, completely changing the existing real estate landscape in the area.
According to abc7, a Chinese billionaire from New Zealand purchased 16 seaside plots in the Malibu fire area last year, with plans to build 16 prefabricated houses from China on the land. The billionaire made his fortune from a factory in Guangzhou.
The revelation sparked hundreds of reactions on Facebook. A Los Angeles real estate agent mentioned that she represented many full-cash buyers from China, with funds directly from the Chinese government. The buyer revealed that their sister is a government official supervising postal services.
This aligns with the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) statistics from last year, showing that 71% of homes sold to Chinese buyers in the US from April 2024 to March 2025 were all-cash transactions.
California has always been a top destination for Chinese real estate buyers. NAR’s statistics also reveal that 36% of homes purchased by Chinese buyers are located in California.
A study by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) found that over the past six years, the number of new homes built in California far exceeded the population growth rate, yet the vacancy rate for owner-occupied homes dropped from 1.2% to 0.8%. Experts point out that the available homes on the market are only enough to last for 3.3 months. Despite efforts such as promoting Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) and expediting approvals, California still struggles to meet housing demands.
Senior researcher Paige Terryberry from the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) recently highlighted various factors hindering potential American homebuyers from achieving homeownership dreams, with the influx of foreign buyers being particularly prominent. Foreign economic competitors purchasing US properties in large quantities have driven up prices, excluding many Americans from the housing market.
NAR’s statistics further reveal that from April 2024 to March 2025, Chinese buyers accounted for 15% of foreign buyers in the US, investing $13.7 billion in the US real estate market, surpassing Canada and India ($6.2 billion and $4.4 billion, respectively) ranked second and third.
Terryberry also pointed out that during the mentioned period, foreign buyers acquired 78,000 US properties, with nearly half being all-cash transactions, while Chinese buyers had a 71% all-cash transaction rate, compared to 29% for American buyers and only 8% for first-time homebuyers.
Last year, Senator Rick Scott requested the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to task the Committee on Foreign Investment to review relevant reports. These reports indicated that Communist China was exploiting California’s devastating wildfires to acquire burnt land through affiliated companies.
In his letter, Scott singled out one of the buyers, the Hong Kong-based Zuru toy company. He expressed concern that the company, through smart home technology and internet-connected appliances accessing the US grid, could potentially send American citizens’ data back to China. He urged Bessent to scrutinize such cases.
Some military facilities in Southern California fall under the oversight of the Committee on Foreign Investment, including the Naval Base Ventura County. Scott emphasized that the Chinese Communist Party and Xi Jinping are enemies of the US, repeatedly showing their intentions to obtain American data, markets, and land to undermine the American way of life.