Cashed-up purchasers are gobbling up high-end Australian property. But where does the money come from?
A long-time Vaucluse resident recently set out on a Sunday stroll when she was approached by a flustered bus driver conveying a party of wealthy Chinese around Sydney’s dress circle eastern suburbs.
The build-up gathered pace in May when public relations queen Roxy Jacenko sold her Vaucluse home for $15.8 million to, daughter of Zhang Yansen, who heads the Goubuli Group food, beverage and medicine company headquartered in Tianjin, eastern China. Record migration and China’s post-pandemic reopening have sparked a surge of foreign investment in Australian property, and international agents are reporting a more than 400 per cent increase in inquiries.in the past quarter, compared with the previous year, and buyers from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Vietnam are leading the influx.
Several Vaucluse residents say that in their streets, half the properties sold to Chinese purchasers remain vacant. But these residents refuse to go “on the record” – in other words, they will not associate their own names with the claims they were making. But there is blow-back. Singapore has doubled stamp duty for foreign property buyers. The island state is also scrutinising the real provenance of anonymous, foreign-owned family trusts after the emergence of aMore widely, property purchases by foreigners are now banned in Canada, New Zealand, Thailand and on the Indonesian island of Bali, but not elsewhere in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, local sensitivities about relations with a country that accounts for one-third of Australia’s two-way trade mean any proposed extra federal levies and charges for foreign property purchases, or vigilance in ensuring current restrictions are not easily sidestepped, are not regarded as suitable candidates for the political bullhorn.by an Australian prime minister in seven years.
Sensitivity about foreign high-end property buying is not as prominent with state governments. On October 3, the Victorian government announced it would virtually double its tax on. “Our clear message to the landowners is to either develop the land or sell it to someone who will,” Treasurer Tim Pallas said.
However, he did not provide evidence. Reflecting popular ambivalence on the issue, Panos acknowledged foreign-sourced property purchases were “actually helping the market stay relatively good in prices even though we’ve had 12 rate rises”. Sydney’s agents cite harbour and bridge views, plus proximity to exclusive private schools such as Ascham, Cranbrook, Scots and Kambala, as common factors enticing Chinese buyers.“The Chinese market has been particularly strong in the past six months following the lull during COVID,” Leipnik says. “A lot these Chinese buyers are looking at Vaucluse and Bellevue Hill to send their children eastern suburbs schools.
The Sotheby’s agent, who specialises in high-end sales in Sydney’s blue-chip east, says a lot of his recent Chinese clients are returning to Australia after receiving their education here in the late 1980s. However, this estimate does not take account of the money trail from Australian home purchases back to Singapore-based, Chinese-owned investment trusts.
belonging to the late co-owner of 7Eleven, Beverley Barlow, resetting the Bayside suburb’s price record in the process.Both underscore Australia’s emergence as the top destination for Chinese property investors, according to data from international real estate group Juwai, which analysed buyer enquiries received through the first six months of 2023.
A government spokesperson says these purchases are largely concentrated in off-the-plan apartments , in part because all foreign buyers, other than temporary residents, are generally restricted to purchasing newly constructed dwellings.
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