Chinese property buyers armed with $5.3 trillion in savings have set their sights set on Australia, according to research by Juwai IQI, reported in The Australian.
Australia has pipped Canada to be the number one destination for Chinese property hunters, who covet Australia’s education and migration opportunities.
“Chinese consumers have had their borders locked down for three years, and they have a lot of pending business to take care of”, Juwai IQI co-founder and group managing director Daniel Ho said.
“Whether their plans were to retire, study or just invest in Australia, they haven’t been able to do it for nearly three years”.
“Education and quality of life for full-time residency is what makes Australia and the other top countries so desirable”, Ho said.
Chinese interest in Australian property is being fueled by the possibility of moving to Australia, which is forecast to see roughly 1 million new migrants by 2025, including 70,000 from China.
“Unlike in the pre-Covid boom, almost all of today’s buyers intend to live in their property, even in not immediately. They are buying here because they intend to live here. They are looking at houses and townhouses and larger apartments”, Ho said.
Nine News likewise reported that Chinese are buying twice as much Australian property this year as last year, with NSW and Victoria accounting for 30% of purchases respectively:
This follows The SMH’s recent report claiming that “cashed-up Chinese buyers have re-entered Sydney’s property market with gusto”.
The surge in Chinese buyers helps to explain why Sydney home values have rebounded so sharply despite skyrocketing interest rates.
The majority of Chinese buyers would purchase without a mortgage. Therefore, they would not be impacted by the Reserve Bank’s aggressive interest rate increases.
Rising Chinese buyer demand would be having a bigger-than-normal impact on Sydney (and Australian) home values due to the lack of available listings.
