Renderings of the TwentyTwenty condominium building under construction at Northeast 21st Avenue and Multnomah Street. The real estate brokerage Cascade Sotheby's will exclusively market up to 45 of the building's 162 units to buyers in Asia. (Hacker Architects)

A Northeast Portland condo building still under construction will market more than a quarter of its units exclusively to buyers who live in Asia, an apparent first for the city.

Asian buyers have become a significant force in larger West Coast cities, and Chinese buyers alone bought $30.4 billion in U.S. real estate over the year ending in March, according to the National Association of Realtors.

But they've mostly bypassed Portland, a less globally known city with a smaller Asian-American population.

The real-estate brokers in charge of selling condos in the new TwentyTwenty building at 20th Avenue and Multnomah Street say that could change.

Cascade Sotheby's International Realty will offer up to 45 of the 162 units exclusively through its Asia desk.

Portland's lower home prices are increasingly attractive, particularly for Chinese buyers facing new investment restrictions from their own government. The company will also target buyers in Singapore, Japan and other Asian countries.

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Renderings of the TwentyTwenty condominium building under construction at Northeast 21st Avenue and Multnomah Street. (Hacker Architects)

About half of the buyers would likely be investors, said broker Michael Zhang of Cascade Sotheby's. Those buyers might hire a manager to rent out the property to locals.

Others might buy the units as a second or third home, he said, where they'd spend a couple of months out of the year.

In Vancouver, B.C., where real estate brokers have long courted Asian buyers, the flood of foreign homebuyers has raised concerns about inflating home prices and rents, which were already skyrocketing. Seattle saw a spike in overseas investment interest after Vancouver passed new taxes targeting foreign buyers, raising fears the same thing could happen there.

It's not clear whether those fears are warranted, housing researchers say. And in Portland, the effect of about 45 condos is likely to be negligible. It also remains to be seen whether the sales gambit will be successful.

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Renderings of the TwentyTwenty condominium building under construction at Northeast 21st Avenue and Multnomah Street. (Hacker Architects)

Wealthy Chinese citizens have turned to overseas property as a way to store large sums of money.

In China, land belongs to the state, and individuals can only buy the right to use it for up to seven decades. Property rights in the U.S. are considered far more secure, and residential real estate can bring in a reliable return in price appreciation and potentially rental income.

Chinese investors have typically looked to luxury properties, particularly in high-rise apartments, as a way to hold a lot of money in one place.

But units in the TwentyTwenty building, expected to be finished in 2019, are priced nearer the region's average home price. Its one-bedroom units will start at $300,000 and its two-bedroom units at $500,000.

That's part of why Zhang believes Chinese buyers might suddenly be interested in Portland.

The Chinese government has in recent months restricted the flow of Chinese cash out of the country to about $50,000 per person. That makes it difficult for a would-be buyer -- even with the help of family and friends -- to wire enough money to buy a multimillion-dollar property.

"To get $3 million, it takes forever," Zhang said. "To get half a million, it's reasonable."

There's one problem: Most Chinese buyers haven't even heard of Portland or Oregon.

"They say, 'What? Ohio?'" Zhang said. "I have to sell them the lifestyle. I have to sell them on Portland, Oregon."

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An interior rendering of the TwentyTwenty condominium building under construction at Northeast 21st Avenue and Multnomah Street. (Hacker Architects)

Some elected officials and affordable housing activists have pointed fingers at foreign buyers in Vancouver for pushing that city's home prices even higher, and the city passed -- then increased -- a tax on foreign real-estate purchases. And at a time when renters are facing steep rent hikes because of a rental shortage, empty investment units stoked the ire of housing activists, prompting the city tax empty homes.

When Seattle started to see growing interest from overseas investors, potential responses became a campaign issue, with one mayoral candidate proposing a similar tax to Vancouver's. Jenny Durkan, who went on to win the election, dismissed the idea, saying the taxes amounted to a form of discrimination based on national origin.

Dan Bertolet, a researcher for the Sightline Institute, a Seattle urban affairs think tank, said it's possible Chinese buyers have influenced the market in Vancouver. Home prices have climbed far faster than construction costs or wages, suggesting outside influence.

Not so in Seattle, where a booming technology sector has pushed wages higher. That's more likely to be behind rising home prices than foreign speculation, he said.

"Maybe it's happening a little bit here," he said, "but it doesn't seem to be a problem that's really contributing in any way to our housing affordability issues."

James Young, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington, said fears of a foreign investment-fueled bubble in Seattle seems to have been unfounded.

"While there's evidence of increase foreign investment, I don't think you can say it's something that's transforming the market in a significant way, as much as it is in Vancouver," he said.

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An interior rendering of the TwentyTwenty condominium building under construction at Northeast 21st Avenue and Multnomah Street. (Hacker Architects)

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An interior rendering of the TwentyTwenty condominium building under construction at Northeast 21st Avenue and Multnomah Street. (Hacker Architects)

-- Elliot Njus

enjus@oregonian.com

503-294-5034

@enjus