For many years after 2006, a year in which Chinese government ended its policy of allowing foreign companies (those registered in foreign jurisdictions, not those foreign invested companies in China) directly purchasing real properties in China, in an effort to cool down the then red hot property market.
With the No. 171 Decree announced by several ministries together in 2006, hot money from foreign countries were cut out of Chinese property market. Foreign buyers, individuals or corporate, were required to meet certain criteria in order to be eligible for purchasing real properties in China. Before this turning point, there had been quite a number of foreign companies from Hong Kong (under the one country two systems regime, Hong Kong is legally considered as a foreign jurisdiction), Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and other ASEAN countries that had purchased real properties, residential or cocmmercial, and registered as owners on real estate ownership certificates or title deeds.
For those foreign companies that had bought properties before the 2006 No. 171 Decree, they found themself in a dilemma when they want to sell their China properties: they cannot open a bank account in China to receive sale proceeds, and thus cannot repatriate property sale proceeds out of China. Indeed, we have been asked a few times in the past about such a plight those foreign companies have encountered.
The main reason is that therer are strict rules about opening RMB settlement bank accounts with Chinese banks, and foreign companies are not allowed to open RMB denominated bank accounts for purpose of receiving property sale proceeds. Without a bank account, no need to mention the subsequent money repatriation.
It has been a dead end till we were introduced a channel and route that can be utilized to help out those foreign companies that want to sell their Chinese properties bought before the year of 2006.
Just at the end of January 2026, we successfully helped a Hong Kong company sell its two villa properties in Beijing, and sent the sale proceeds out of China back to Hong Kong bank account owned by the HK company.
It works like this: the foreign company shall designate an incumbent corporate officer to open a bank account in China, and use this bank account to receive sale proceeds from buyers, and then use the same bank account to repatriate sale proceeds out of China.
The key lies with which bank is willing to offer such help. Very few!
If you need help in this regard, please reach out to us via email on this blog.
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