Via the quarterly NAB property professionals survey:
The trend decline in foreign buying activity over the course of 2018 has continued into 2019. In Q4, the market share of foreign buyers in Australian housing markets fell to just 4.9% (from 6.5% in Q4 and a survey high 16.8% in Q3 2014), and 3.5% in established markets (broadly unchanged from a survey low 3.4% in the previous quarter).
In new housing markets, the share of sales to foreign buyers fell below average levels in all states. In key markets, QLD now leads the way for foreign buyers with a market share of 6.7% (7.9% in Q4). QLD has also overtaken VIC as the biggest market for foreign buyers, with market share in VIC falling to 4.8% in Q1 2019 (8.3% in Q4) – well below a survey average of 13.9% and a high of almost 33% in late-2014. In NSW, market share also fell to 4.1% in Q1 2019, down from 4.6% in Q4 – and also well below the survey average 9.8% and highs of around 21% in early-2015.
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David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
