Chinese investments are slowing down Australia in 2015 says a major real estate franchise, Phil McCarroll of Your Investment Property reports.
China's economic conditions as well as that of Australia's property market are believed to have caused this shift in the interest of Chinese buyers for Australian real estate, John McGrath, chief executive officer of McGrath Real Estate says.
"[They] are still there, but it is probably back 10 or 15% from where they were a year ago," McGrath told Bloomberg.
"I think there is a whole combination of things there. The Chinese stock market and so forth," he said.
If there is any, Chinese buyers are looking at Brisbane as well as other areas of south east Queensland which have "compelling" prices as compared to the mega cities like Sydney and Melbourne.
"We have seen two big Chinese buyer trends in 2015: a shift in momentum out of New South Wales and into Victoria and especially Queensland, and stronger growth in demand for new apartments in the $300,000 to $1.2 million range," Henry said.
"Chinese buyers may come from another country, but they are also acutely sensitive to price and value, especially below $2 million. Melbourne and - even more so - Brisbane are offering the best value at this point," he said.
Chinese buyers had strong interests in Melbourne's premium market with values at or above $5 million in 2015.
"This year, Sydney lost some premium buyers to Melbourne. These buyers simply found more to like in the properties available in Melbourne, especially in September. Melbourne captured the majority of the growth in buyer interest at this price range," Henry said.
"While Sydney started the year with more premium property buyer interest, as measured by views of those properties on Juwai.com, Melbourne showed the strongest growth. Melbourne ended the period with more than 700% growth, while Sydney finished September roughly back where it started."
This coming 2016 is looking interesting for Henry, saying that he is interested to see the effect of Sydney price correction on Chinese buyers, and believes that the incoming year will keep the spotlight on the premium market.
"Our forecast is for continued growth in the premium Chinese buyer market. New data from China shows that the country now has more billionaires than any other, even the United States. Its ranks of multi-millionaires is also growing rapidly"
"China is also considering the complete removal of all limits on capital exports by 2020. The Bank of England expects that to result in a 600% increase in Chinese ownership of overseas assets, including real estate."
