What's your source? Mexico's per capita GDP is the same as China's and Mexico's data is probably more accurate. Mexico is a middle income country and NAFTA has been transformative for Mexico in the last couple of decades.
I wasn't citing the per-capita numbers. Here's total GDP:
China, 2000: 1.2 trillion USD [0]
China, 2017: 12.2 trillion USD [0]
Mexico, 2000: 700 billion USD [1]
Mexico, 2017: 1.15 trillion USD [1]
If GDP is a proxy for wealth, China --over the past ~2 decades-- had way much more potential in investing in foreign real estate. I don't understand why per capita GDP would be more relevant in determining which nation would have more capacity in investing in foreign real estate. That capacity for investment seems independent of how the wealth is divided among a countries citizens.
"That capacity for investment seems independent of how the wealth is divided among a countries citizens."
The rest of your comment makes sense. But this last part doesn't seem right: if wealth were distributed evenly in China, then there might be no Chinese buyers for US real estate. It's only due to inequality ('how the wealth is divided') that there is a segment who can afford this.
I don't think we'd be able to infer the wealth distribution from GDP per capita, either. Total GDP tied with the Gini coefficient might tell a reasonable story. But the premise of Gini Index of 1 leaving all people too poor to invest directly in U.S. Real Estate makes sense. I'm pretty confident that China's wealth distribution is far from perfectly equal among all citizens.
