Foreign buyers are getting up to 40 percent of stock in Perth's new apartment constructions and the Concerto complex in East Perth has become the most sought after in the city, according to Finbar managing director Ronald Chan.
Chan's company holds majority of the market share in the city's apartment buildings and he said that cheap prices are attracting overseas buyers. PerthNow indicated that since Perth's property market has been experiencing slow growth rate, many developers are trying to market their stocks abroad. Many of these companies are now hiring international associates who are mandated to go to Asia and try to sell Perth homes to interested buyers.
Among them is Vince Tong who was hired by Builton, a billion-dollar construction company, to be their sales representative. He said many of his clients have never travelled to Perth before but they are all open to a "blind purchase" once they see the presentations they have. "They might never visit Perth, but as free-trade agreements continue and Chinese people start to see more WA products in their supermarkets, they feel a familiarity," Tong said.
But according to The Australian, the influx of foreign purchases in Perth is just a result of developers' push to market their stock abroad and a lack of interest from local buyers. Nigel Satterley, a well-known land developer in the country with several Chinese backers, said apartment builders are just trying to "flog" what they built to buyers abroad instead of attracting interest from local Australians.
"We know Asia very well and they simply have no interest. They want Melbourne and to a lesser extent Sydney," Satterley explained. "The apartment developers are doing what Shane Warne would call a 'spin' ... (Overseas) buyers are very savvy and know what the situation is with the massive apartment oversupply," he added.
