Chinese buyer demand up in Melbourne, but down nationally

MELBOURNE has “stolen” Chinese buyers from other Australian cities this year, bucking a national trend to rise in popularity with property-hunters from the country.

A Chinese buyer has paid a Victorian record price for 18 St Georges Rd, Toorak. Picture: Google

MELBOURNE has “stolen” Chinese buyers from other Australian cities this year, bucking a national trend to rise in popularity with property-hunters from the country.

Figures from Chinese international property website Juwai.com show Melbourne received 40.5 per cent of Chinese buyer inquiries made in Australia so far this year — up from 35.6 per cent last year and 29.2 per cent in 2015.

RELATED: Chinese buyer snaps up record-breaking Toorak mansion

Sydney took the next largest share, 17.5 per cent.

Inquiries from China about homes in Victoria’s capital were 13.3 per cent higher in the first half of 2017 than in the same period last year.

“That’s even faster than the global growth rate of 8.7 per cent,” Juwai.com’s head of Australia Jane Lu said.

“In 2017, Melbourne has stolen Chinese buyers from other locations.”

Inquiries about Australian property overall were down 9.7 per cent in the same period.

Ms Lu said a series of foreign buyer restrictions and taxes recently imposed in Australia, with little prior warning, had made some Chinese property-hunters “conclude this country is not as welcoming as before”.

That being said, the removal of stamp duty concessions for off-the-plan purchasers in Victoria from July 1 had barely affected Chinese appetite for Melbourne homes, she said: “It figures into the calculations of investment buyers, but it doesn’t have much impact on lifestyle and education buyers.”

And new guidelines recently introduced by the Chinese government restricting overseas spending by the country’s companies would not apply to individual property buyers, Ms Lu said.

Australia comfortably remains the second most popular offshore destination for Chinese buyers, behind the US, as its property is considered “good value”, according to Juwai.com.

Melbourne’s most sought suburbs are Point Cook, Southbank, the CBD, Preston and Tarneit.

Ms Lu said the city’s educational and employment opportunities, reliable investment environment, large Chinese community and relatively safe lifestyle made it popular.

Morrell & Koren buyer’s advocate Christopher Koren said Foreign Investment Review Board restrictions, more stamp duty and other taxes recently imposed on foreign buyers in Australia didn’t seem to have stopped Chinese buyers from having an interest in blue chip Melbourne.

This was evidenced by the recent state record-breaking $39 million sale of 18 St Georges Rd, Toorak to mystery Chinese man Qi Yang, he said.

Kay & Burton director Michael Gibson said there was also strong demand from local Chinese buyers — those who had been “living in Melbourne for five, 10, 20 years” — at Melbourne’s top-end.

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