Mirabile dictu: Realty deals collapse as Chinese money flees

Thursday, 19 November 2020

There are no end to the pleasures of Australia’s Chinese decoupling. Via SCMP today:

A group of Chinese investors has withdrawn its bid to purchase a A$80 million (US$58.5 million) office tower in Sydney after the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) delayed approval of the deal for eight months.

Analysts conceded that while the large backlog of foreign investment reviews since scrutiny was tightened in March likely played a role, the lack of any response suggested the Chinese curbs on a range of Australian imports also likely played a part.

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About the author

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.