Orlando News
The passenger numbers for 2018 have been counted and once again Orlando International Airport (MCO) is the busiest airport in the state of Florida with a record 47.7 million annual passengers, up 6.9 percent over 2017. MCO surpassed 150 non-stop domestic and international destinations in 2018, which contributed greatly to the airport’s increased airline activity, seat availability and passenger traffic numbers.
In a recent meeting, the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA) Board voted to position Orlando International Airport (MCO) as the first U.S. airport to fully deploy the U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) Biometric Entry and Exit Program. The system will be implemented at the 30 MCO gates having international departures and at CBP checkpoints located in the airport’s two Federal Inspection Stations.
“The international real estate market is crucial to Orlando’s real estate industry and overall economy,” says Senior Global Real Estate Advisor, Garry Walmsley with The Orlando Agency, a Division of Global Real Estate Services, Inc. "There were approximately 61,300 Florida homes sold to foreign nationals during the 2017 study’s 12-month period.
The Orlando Agency have recently set up a headquarters for Canadian's looking to purchase real estate in Orlando, fast becoming to go-to destination for many Canadians contemplating investment into the Florida real estate market. "We've seen a large number of Canadians purchasing in Orlando as opposed to the traditional areas of the South-East and South-West of Florida, mainly due to the variance of real estate options, combined with income potential that's available in the World's #1 Vacation Destination", says Senior Global Real Estate Advisor, Garry Walmsley of Global Real Estate Services.
Despite the slowdown in Chinese economic growth and tighter regulations on outflows of foreign exchange, Chinese foreign buyers remained as the top foreign buyer of U.S. residential property, according to NAR’s recently released 2017 Profile of International Activity in U.S. Residential Real Estate.
Chinese buyers accounted for 14 percent of all foreign buyers[1], followed by Canada (12 percent), Mexico (10 percent), India (5 percent), and the United Kingdom (5 percent).
Fueled by a substantial increase in sales dollar volume from Canadian buyers, foreign investment in U.S. residential real estate skyrocketed to a new high. In all five of the top feeder countries buying U.S. real estate, the number of transactions grew, according to an annual survey of residential purchases from international buyers released by the National Association of Realtors® (NAR).
Foreign buyers purchased $102.6 billion of residential property in the U.S. between April 2015 and March 2016, according to NAR's annual report on international activity in U.S. real estate. That is a 1.3 percent decline in dollar volume from the previous survey. The number of properties purchased, however, rose 2.8 percent to 214,885. The value of homes bought by foreigners was typically higher than the median price of all U.S. homes.
