Realty parasite: Hanson killing Asian “golden goose”

Some days in Australia you really just don’t know where to look, from The New Daily:

Australia’s escalating crackdown on Chinese housing investors is reportedly painting the nation as racist.

Senior real estate figures told The New Daily they support the new rules imposed on Chinese buyers in recent weeks, including heftier state taxes and higher loan-to-value ratios.

But what concerned one of the experts was that the rules are being interpreted by the Chinese as “xenophobic” because of the “Pauline Hanson factor”.

Malcolm Gunning, former president of the Real Estate Institute of NSW and founder of the Gunning agency, said he supported the rules in principle, but not how they are being politicised.

The new stamp duty surcharges in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland were reported prominently in Chinese newspapers – “this makes the second page” – rather than relegated to the property pages because of perceived racism, Mr Gunning said.

“The taxes are a disincentive, but are not a knockout. What is concerning is the perceived debate around foreign investment, particularly Chinese. And I know that’s a fact because I deal with them regularly.”

The fear on the streets is that a flood of Chinese investors is killing off the Australian dream by inflating prices. It continues to be a hot button issue. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson told voters during the election that Sydney suburbs were being “swamped by Asians”.

‘Most aren’t even foreigners’

A contributing factor to the “xenophobic” response is the confusion between foreign Chinese buyers and Australians of Asian heritage, Mr Gunning said.

“We have plenty of Australian citizens that are from Chinese heritage who tend to want to buy in suburbs which have good transport and are close to city amenities.

“We can get a room full of bidders at our auctions – 75 per cent will be Chinese. There might be two or three who are foreigners.”

‘Beware of killing the golden goose’

Mr Gunning said valuers in Sydney were telling him that the level of inquiries and pre-commitments for off-the-plan developments outside the 5km radius of the Sydney CBD, and inside the 20km ring, had “pulled back significantly”. He said this imperilled the “golden goose” of stamp duty revenue on which Victoria and New South Wales rely heavily.

Data on pre-commitments is difficult to obtain. Two of the nation’s foremost real estate data firms, CoreLogic and BIS Shrapnel, were unable to provide data to verify or refute this claim.

Another property expert, Real Estate Institute of Australia president Neville Sanders, said he had seen no impact: “Often the numbers that support that feeling take time to filter through the market into data, but so far there doesn’t appear to be any significant change in that, no.”

Go Straya.