I'm wondering if anyone has experience buying an apartment through a WFOE (wholly owned foreign enterprise).

I'm considering an apartment that would only allow me to purchase through a WFOE, since I'm a foreign individual. This would entail me setting up an actual company and a WFOE first, and then making the purchase.

If I were to sell the apartment in the future, I'll need to sell the company/Wofe along with it (and get tax break)

Has anyone ever done something similar before? Either buying an apt through a WFOE or buying an apartment that comes with a WFOE. Am wondering if buyers are willing to purchase a unit AND a wfoe license...(though there obviously wont be extra costs for the wfoe)

You might want to consult with a lawyer at first but a property management WFOE should be the way to go. Just make sure to register the WFOE with an offshore company as its parent company (HK or BVI, not as an individual) for easy transfer later since transferring a WFOE to another party will need you to go through a lot of paperwork if done directly here in mainland China. If you have an offshore company as the owner you just sell the offshore company to the buyer and you are done.

dietcoke wrote:I'm wondering if anyone has experience buying an apartment through a WFOE (wholly owned foreign enterprise).

I'm considering an apartment that would only allow me to purchase through a WFOE, since I'm a foreign individual. This would entail me setting up an actual company and a WFOE first, and then making the purchase.

If I were to sell the apartment in the future, I'll need to sell the company/Wofe along with it (and get tax break)

Has anyone ever done something similar before? Either buying an apt through a WFOE or buying an apartment that comes with a WOFE. Am wondering if buyers are willing to purchase a unit AND a wfoe license...(though there obviously wont be extra costs for the wfoe)

Easier said than done.

First of all, the WFOE needs to have a minimum amount of paid-up capital before it can get into real estate. Currently the amount is something like $1 million -- or above.

Second, there are taxes to be paid when a WOFE buys and sells property that an ultimate buyer will not be willing to pay.

Third, you do not just sell a WFOE license and any tax breaks are far less than actual costs and taxes paid.

Fourth, by the time you are ready to sell -- assuming you even have a strong market by then -- there could be fewer restrictions on expat property ownership and nobody will be willing to jump through the hoops (and the added expenses) to buy your unit.

You are going to have problems with the business scope of the WFOE too.