Property Hunter Magazine Issue 63- February 2015 | Page 30

HOT TOPIC | Australia Property Market Outlook 2015

AUSTRALIA PROPERTY

MARKET OUTLOOK 2015

Foreign investment now accounts for about 13 per cent of turnover
in the Australian real estate market with offshore investment in
housing nearly doubling over the past year (2013 – 2014) – most of
which came from China.

I

nvestor interest in Australia’s property market
continues to draw traffic from Asian markets
with Malaysia ranking amongst the top 10
investors. The FIRB (Foreign Investment Review
Board) 2013-2014 annual report quoted
Malaysia as ranked 6th with A$1.60 billion in real
estate investments. At the top of the table is China
with A$5.93 billion, Canada in second place with
A$4.92 billion, followed by the USA with A$4.4
billion, Singapore with A$2.08 billion, and the UK
with A$1.67 billion.
China has been Australia’s strongest growing
investor since 2007 having purchased properties
predominantly in capital cities such as Sydney,
Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. According to a
report from global investment bank Credit Suisse in

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2014, China is expected to sink around $44 billion
into Australian residential real estate over the next
seven years.
The Credit Suisse report estimates that Chinese
investors and newly arrived immigrants have
spent about $24 billion on Australian property
over the past seven years with purchases
concentrated in Australia’s two largest cities,
meaning that an estimated 18 per cent of new
dwellings in Sydney and 14 per cent in Melbourne
are being purchased by Chinese nationals.
The level of Chinese buyers in other markets is
estimated to be 7 per cent or lower.
While Chinese investors may still be the most
significant foreign presence in the Australian