This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
FOR the second year running, Australia was number one destination for Chinese buyers, as wealthy English-speaking countries with leading educational sectors topped the list.
According to pan-Asian property portal Juwai IQI’s 2H 2023 report, Australia was the top destination for Chinese cross-border home buyers, followed by other Anglo countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Compared to 2022, the UK overtook both the US and Thailand, pulling into the number three spot, with Southeast Asia countries also dominating the list with Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Singapore.
Japan and the United Arab Emirates were the only non-Anglo, non-Southeast Asian destinations to claim a spot in the top 10.
While Japan placed seventh, the UAE has quickly moved up the ranks taking the eighth spot. The UAE first entered the top 10 last year, placing ninth after just missing out at 13th in 2021.
After the global pandemic brought outbound travel from China to a stop, 2023 has seen massive rates of recovery, with cross-border travel reaching 65% of 2019 levels.
With international travel rebounding, buyers/investors from China have since accumulated capital to invest into international real estate.
Over the first nine months of 2022, Chinese savings deposits increased in value by RMB 26.3 trillion or US$3.6 trillion.
By 2025, the number of households in the high-income category that will be able to afford to purchase international real estate will increase by 50%. With the Chinese demand for international real estate set to rise proportionately.
The number of upper-middle and high-income urban households in China grew by 39 million between 2019 and 2021 and is expected to grow by another 71 million to a total of 209 million, by 2025.
Buyers are also increasingly looking to invest internationally, as China’s domestic market has failed to hold up to previous years.
This as the growth of contract sales at the top 100 developers sat 57.2% lower in May and 46.9% lower in April than in the same months of 2019.
While secondary home markets are overrun with sellers, even with lowered plummeting sales.
In China, existing home prices were down 0.7% in April and are roughly 10% under their 2021 high.
By 2025, 712,000 Chinese people immigrate to Canada, Australia and the US.
With Australia expected to see an influx 28,800 Chinese people in 2023, 22,680 in 2024 and 18,720 in 2025, for a combined 70,200 by current metrics.
Chinese citizens also make up the leading number of golden visa program participants, accounting for 46% of approved applicants in Australia.
According to the Foreign Investment Review Board, China continued to be the largest source of foreign Australian residential real estate investment proposals by number and value in the December quarter, at $600 million across 440 proposals.
While for the March quarter, the overall market share of foreign buyers in new property markets rose to 7.9%, according to NAB’s residential survey for the period.
