This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
COLLIERS Residential said there is a false perception that Chinese buyers no longer want to invest in Australia, and it is seeing strong demand with approximately 50% of buyers in recently completed apartment towers coming from China.
That continuing demand from international buyers for Melbourne CBD apartments has spurred the office, led by managing director Tim Storey and Brett Griffith, to launch the Collection by Colliers showroom in Shanghai this week.
“This is a demonstration of our confidence about the depth of underlying demand for prime new apartments in Melbourne’s from Chinese buyers in particular,”
Storey said with inevitable changes to international travel, the agency is again first-to-market with a concept that will allow international buyers to meaningfully peruse and understand investment opportunities in Melbourne without needing to see the projects in person.
“We know now is the right time to branch out and take our innovative approach to the buyers,” he added.
According to the Foreign Investment Review Board report released last month, foreign investment in Australian residential real estate has been trending downwards since the peak of 2015-2016.
The 2019-2020 period there were a total of 7,056 residential applications approved, for a combined value of $17.1 billion compared to 2015-2016 with 40,141 approvals for a combined value of $72.4 billion.
FIRB cited a number of reasons for this decline including new taxes, increase on restrictions on capital transfers abroad, and higher foreign stamp duties and foreign investment application fees.
Furthermore Australia’s international borders have been closed since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in 2020.
Storey said there is a false perception that Chinese buyers no longer want to invest in Australia, but the reality is that the product just hasn’t been there to attract interest.
“They haven’t been able to visit us in the last 18 months, but there is still a significant appetite for new apartments. This will accelerate further when borders do inevitably re-open.
“Chinese buyers are astute and they fully understand Melbourne’s fundamental strengths as a place for investment in new apartments which are much more than simply its renown university sector and its CBD which supports so many lifestyle attractions.”
He said approximately 50% of buyers in many recently completed landmark towers in the Melbourne CBD were from China.
“We really began to see the acceleration of the Chinese buyer market in response to the wave of new generation super towers that emerged in 2014 – 2018 such as Aurora and Premier Tower,” he said. “We’ve seen a slowdown from its peak in 2016, caused by several factors including introduction of foreign taxes and more recently the Covid-19 pandemic which has also restricted access for foreign buyers into Australia.
“In addition, there has not been one significant CBD project hitting the market since Aspire Melbourne launched in 2018, so new buying opportunities have been effectively switched off.
“Despite this, and to the surprise of many, enquiry demand from China is still strong, and it will continue to be because buyers continue to experience strong local economic circumstances and Melbourne retains its strong reputation and appeal,”
The new, two-level Collection by Colliers showroom was opened at Richgate Plaza, Xin Tian Di in central Shanghai by Colliers’ managing director in China, Tammy Tang.
“In opening the new Collection by Colliers showroom in central Shanghai, we can now showcase numerous projects in one destination. We have taken inspiration from our flagship Melbourne CBD showroom which has been so successful in Melbourne. Our goal is to expand the network of Collection showrooms to other key Asian cities including Hong Kong and Singapore in the future.
“Our team have been on the ground for a few months now led by Jenny Chen, associate director – Asian Markets. Jenny was the natural choice to lead such an operation, having grown up near Shanghai and working with us in Melbourne for the last few years. She has unrivalled market knowledge and as result we’ve already had significant engagement with key influencers in China to help propel initial sales.” Storey concluded.
