A game of Chinese whispers has been doing the rounds this autumn. In September, an economist claimed on television that Chinese investors are snapping up homes in east London. Two days later, an estate agent who misheard the programme declared that one-third of all home buyers in the British capital come from the People’s Republic of China. Another estate agent got into a muddle, saying one-in-three pupils starting school at Eton College this autumn is Chinese. The true figure is less than 3 per cent.

Misunderstandings aside, however, an essential truth remains: well-heeled Chinese property buyers are making their mark on housing markets worldwide. Some 475,000 Chinese have assets of $1m or more, according to the wealth management strategy firm Scorpio Partnership. This means China has the fourth-largest number of high net-worth individuals (HNWIs) in the world. More good news for estate agents is the fact that China’s HNWIs keep one-fifth of their assets in property.

Despite the size of this new property-owning class, it can appear invisible. Beijing limits its citizens to taking $50,000 out of the country each year, but many thousands of Chinese quietly skirt round these capital controls. It is tough to pin down how many buyers there are and how much they spend, because their desire to stay under the radar means they can be secretive. Most money finding its way overseas is channelled through Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous special administrative region (SAR), where Chinese can invest freely.