Asian bargain hunters spend record $1.4 billion on Brisbane property last year

FOREIGN bargain hunters have swooped on Brisbane real estate to spend over $2 billion in the past year, and most of the interest is coming from one place.

ASIAN bargain hunters have swooped on Brisbane real estate to spend a record $1.4 billion in the past year, defying a statewide slowdown in foreign investment.

Offshore investment in Queensland property plunged 17 per cent in 2017-18, to a three-year low of $3.5 billion.

Jetsons home

Winter house

Hubcap house

But in Brisbane, foreign investors spent 2.5 per cent more to purchase properties worth $2.1 billion, new Titles Registry statistics obtained by The Courier Mail reveal.

Brisbane was the sweet spot for Asian buyers, whose spending soared 21 per cent to $1.4 billion.

Buyers from mainland China and Hong Kong purchased property in Brisbane worth $977 million – up 23 per cent.

Chinese investors now own 5491 houses, units and commercial properties across Brisbane – 42 per cent more than the year before.

The turnout for the auction of 82 The Avenue, Sunnybank Hills, in September included a large contingent of Asian home hunters. Picture: Tara Croser

Investors from Singapore tripled their spending on Brisbane property to $338 million.

New data from the REA Group – the owner of realestate.com.au – reveals that Chinese house-hunters are shunning Sydney to search for homes in Brisbane.

The number of Brisbane property searches originating from China jumped by 20 per cent last financial year.

But across Queensland, Chinese searches for property fell 16 per cent.

Chinese searches were down 10 per cent for Sydney real estate, down nearly 20 per cent for Adelaide properties and up 11 per cent for Melbourne real estate.

REA Group chief economist Nerida Conisbee yesterday said Brisbane was a hot spot for Chinese investors, bucking the national trend.

She said a Chinese government crackdown on sending money offshore was driving Chinese buyers out of the commercial property market.

“We’re now seeing a huge drop-off in transactions for commercial properties, including farms, office buildings and development sites,’’ she said.

Place real estate agent Kevin Chiu with registered auction bidders at a home in Sunnybank Hills, where demand from Asian buyers is high. Picture: Tara Croser

Ms Conisbee said Chinese buyers were focusing on Brisbane suburbs close to universities, for homes where their children could live while studying in Australia.

“There are quite a lot of parents wanting to send their kids to study at an Australian university,’’ she said.

“The view in Asia at the moment is that Australian property is over-priced – but they still seem very interested in Brisbane because the pricing is so much better.’’

The most popular Brisbane suburbs for Chinese investors searching on realestate.com.au during 2017-18 were the CBD, South Brisbane, Sunnybank, Carindale, the Queensland University suburbs of Indooroopilly and St Lucia, as well as Calamvale, Sunnybank Hills, Toowong, Eight Mile Plains and Runcorn.

Titles Registry data reveals that on the Gold Coast, foreign investment in real estate plunged 40 per cent – from $1 billion in 2016-17 to $643 million last financial year.

And in Cairns, foreign property investment crashed 90 per cent – from $150 million in 2016-17 to a trifling $16 million last financial year.

Chinese investment in Cairns real estate fell from $20 million to a mere $943,000 in 2017-18.

Foreign investors own 40,098 properties in Queensland – with half in the southeast corner.

In Brisbane, they own 10,433 houses, apartments and commercial properties – up 19 per cent in a year, plus 9245 on the Gold Coast – up 12 per cent.