In the second quarter of this year, the number of wealthy Chinese homebuyers who came to Australia for enquiries jumped by 30%. Among them, the number of people who asked about housing prices between 3 million and 7 million yuan was particularly strong. But the house with a price between 7 million and 14.5 million was left unattended. In the second quarter, the number of buyers who asked these houses was reduced by 36%. Last year, two of the three real estate transactions in Mosman, a suburb of Sydney, were from China.
But Ken Jacobs, managing director of Christie’s International Real Estate, said the shortage of inventories is more serious than the shortage of buyers in the high-end market. He said: “The trend I have seen in the past six or seven years is that international buyers from China and Europe are not ready to buy a house, but they think Australia is an evasion plan. Europeans worry about terrorism and Europe may The large-scale immigration that has occurred will have an impact on their lives. They see buying a home in Australia as an insurance measure. This is very similar to what you see in New Zealand.”
Among all the capital cities in Australia, Melbourne is the most popular city for Chinese buyers. Although the Australian government imposes higher taxes on foreign buyers, the devaluation of the Australian dollar means that it is now purchased in Australia compared to 2017. Set an apartment or a separate house worth about 800,000 yuan to spend 88,000 yuan less. As the real estate industry improves, Chinese buyers are expected to return to the Australian real estate market next year. According to the latest report released by Juwai.com on July 12, the exchange rate of the Australian dollar against the RMB fell by more than 11%, increasing the attractiveness of Australian real estate. Australian real estate industry experts believe that the reduction of China’s capital controls provides the greatest opportunity to promote Chinese buyers’ investment in Australia. The report from the foreign network also shows that the foreign buyer tax imposed by NSW and Victoria is currently 8%.
Carrie Law, chief executive of Juwai.com, said: “Melbourne is the most popular city in Australia for all Chinese buyers. Compared with Sydney, the number of Chinese buyers asking about Melbourne properties has increased by 83%. The cities with the fastest growing interest in home are Hobart, Brisbane and Canberra. The number of Chinese homebuyers asking about Hobart’s property in 2018 is 77% higher than the previous year. Canberra is Australia’s third largest Chinese home buyer. Interested cities, the number of Chinese buyers asking about Canberra houses has increased by 24.6%. But Chinese buyers are significantly less interested in Hobart and Canberra than in Sydney or Melbourne.” She added that higher education has greatly promoted Chinese home buyers invest in Australia. The number of foreign students in Victoria is the largest in Australia, accounting for more than one-third of the total number of Australian students. The number of international students in NSW is about 30% of all foreign students, and Queensland and Western Australia account for 13% and 9% respectively. 83% of Chinese buyers think that education is the reason they immigrated to Australia, 69% think it is an environmental problem, 57% think it is a food safety issue, and 28% think it is an asset security issue.
