Although Australia is a popular real estate market for Chinese nationals, interest has weakened due to stringent government rules and Beijing’s capital controls, reported ABC News, citing data from property portal Juwai.com.
In fact, purchase inquiries regarding Australian houses by those from China fell 9.7 percent in 1H 2017 from the same period a year ago, while median inquiry price dropped from around AU$394,000 (RM1.34 million) to about AU$350,000 (RM1.19 million).
On the other hand, buying interest in other countries rose by 8.7 percent, including in the Asian nations of Thailand, Japan and Malaysia, which is the 9th top market for Chinese buyers.
According to Juwai’s Australian head Jane Lu, buyers from China are still adjusting to the new regulations and taxes in Australia, which was still the second top overseas property market for this group in the first half of 2017.
“Their top goals are risk diversification and their children’s education. Australia is a very appealing destination in both these areas.”
“The fact that we still have so much Chinese real estate buying in Australia shows that they still have the money. When you compare the price of similar property in China and Australia, Australia still offers good value,” she said.
Notably, Chinese buyers are shifting their attention from Australia after the government of Victoria scrapped the stamp duty concession for off-the-plan buyers and hiked the stamp duty surcharge for foreigners from three percent to seven percent in 2016.
The government of New South Wales (NSW) also increased its foreign-buyer surcharge by two-fold to eight percent, while Queensland introduced a surcharge of three percent.
Meanwhile, statistics from Juwai revealed that the US, Australia, Thailand, Canada and the UK were the top five real estate markets for the Chinese in 1H 2017.
In particular, Thailand’s ranking improved from 6th spot to the third place thanks to its rising popularity among Chinese with “lower-wealth”, noted Lu, adding that many of the buyers had first visited the ASEAN country as tourists.
“Thailand receives significantly more buyer interest than any other Southeast Asian country, including Malaysia — the next best South-East Asian performer.”
“Thailand is inexpensive and easy to reach, and Chinese buyers like the relatively inexpensive luxury of the city condominiums and resort properties,” she added.
Image sourced from ABC.Net
This article was edited by the editorial team of PropertyGuru. To contact them about this or other stories email editorialteam@propertyguru.com.my
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