Chinese Still Pouring Into Australia Housing

From Mingtiandi: CHINESE POUR $1.23B INTO SYDNEY REAL ESTATE IN LAST 2 MONTHS – MORE ON THE WAY

China’s outbound investment wave continued to flow into Sydney as buyers from the mainland and Hong Kong acquired more than $1.23 billion worth of major assets during the last two months of 2014.

Most of the investors were major mainland property developers looking to escape the dwindling returns of a slumping Chinese property market.

The article mainly deals with commercial real estate, but home buyers are also pouring into Australia. An article in iFeng explains why, and the thinking behind the move: 开发商对新政反应灵敏 借势营销海外房产

"Australian home prices have stable growth of 7% per year. Australian's vacancy rate is only 1% to 2%, China's is 13% to 30%. Rental rates are higher. Australia has the world's most open immigration policy, no real estate tax, no inheritance tax. Also, down payments are only 5% to 10%, you can borrow 70% to 80%. Australia has 200,000 new immigrants each year, new housing demand is 8 million square meters, it is definitely a seller's market......"

Developers are responding to demand by building overseas projects and selling overseas property to Chinese investors who have cooled on the domestic market.

Back to the Mingtiandi article:

Although all four of these Chinese developers acquired office assets, they also all appear to have the intent of converting these existing buildings for sale as apartments.

Wanda’s Gold Fields House had already been approved for conversion before the acquisition, and Shimao is said to have similar plans for its tower along Sydney’s Hyde Park.

According to an article in Sydney newspaper, The Australian, Vision Investment Group’s site at 233 Castlereagh Street has also long been pegged as future residential space, and Poly’s suburban site has been zoned for 500 apartments plus commercial space.

In developing residential space in Sydney, these four Chinese real estate firms may be following the lead of Shanghai-based Greenland Group which has already acquired four sites in Australia’s commercial centre.