Have Chinese apartment buyers saved the economy?

By Leith van Onselen

The Australian is reporting today that the apartment building boom, heavily funded by Chinese investment, has been responsible for one-fifth of Australia’s economic growth over the past two years and is helping the country adjust to the end of the mining construction boom:

The number of new apartment projects winning approval from local councils has almost doubled since 2012-13 to 105,000 new dwellings over the past financial year. Apartments have accounted for 95 per cent of the growth in housing construction in that period…

“At its low in 2012, it fell to 4.5 per cent of GDP but it’s already up to 5.5 per cent of GDP, so one percentage point of growth has come from a tiny sector,” [Deloitte Access Economics partner, Chris Richardson] said.

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.