Foreign buyers flee Australian housing

NAB has released its Q4 property survey, which confirms that foreign buyers continue to flee Australian property, exacerbating the downturn:

The boom in Australian real estate sales to foreign investors has clearly run its course, with NAB’s latest survey results highlighting a trend decline in foreign buying activity over the course of 2018. In Q4, the market share of foreign buyers in Australian housing markets fell to just 6.5% in new housing markets (their lowest share since Q3 2011 and down from a high of 16.8% in late-2014) and a survey low 3.4% in established markets.

The decline was broad-based, with all major jurisdictions other than Queensland reporting falls across the established market, and the proportion of sales falling to a survey low:

In established markets, the share of sales to foreign buyers also fell to a survey low 3.4% in Q4 2018. Property professionals in VIC and QLD reported the highest share of buyers in established housing markets – both at 4.4%, followed by NSW (3.0%) and WA (2.5%). The share of foreign buyers in established property markets has fallen below survey average levels in all states and currently stands at a near 7 year low level in VIC and a near 8-year low in NSW.

New home sales to foreign buyers have similar tanked everywhere but Queensland:

In new housing markets, the share of sales to foreign buyers fell in all states except QLD where their share rose to 7.9% (6.2% in Q3). VIC continues to lead the way for foreign buyers, but their market share has now fallen to just 8.3% down from 13.0% in Q3 and well below survey high levels of almost 33% in late2014. In NSW, the share of foreign buyers fell to 4.6%, down from 7.5% in Q3 and their lowest level since Q1 2011.

This data directly contradicts Juwai’s claim that Chinese buyers are returning.

It was neither a good time nor a long-time!