Revealed: How the Chinese are buying up our most expensive mansions

Analysis of the most expensive homes sold in Australia reveals almost a third were bought by China-born entrepreneurs.

Point Piper mansion Mandalay sold to a Chinese developer for $39.9m.

Analysis of the most expensive homes sold in Australia reveals almost a third were bought by Chinese-born entrepreneurs.

Ranging in price from $100m for the Fairwater estate on Sydney­ Harbour to $26.25m for a mansion in Melbourne’s Toorak, the CoreLogic-prepared analysis reveals nearly 30 per cent of the buyers hail from mainland China and Hong Kong.

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But the nation’s most expensive mansion sale was eclipsed by a recent deal at the Barangaroo South development on Sydney Harbour.

The mystery buyer of a three-level penthouse at Barangaroo paid more than $140m and is said to be Chinese-born, although ­developer Lendlease would not be drawn on the person’s identity.

James Packer’s Vaucluse property La Mer sold for $70m to Chau Chak Wing in 2015.

The tower’s selling agents ­revealed this week that many of the recent buyers of seven full-floor apartments, ranging from $40m to $45m in price, are also Chinese-born. Lendlease is using a Hong Kong-born agent to market­ the units in its One Sydney Harbour project.

Guangdong-born Chau Chak Wing forked out $70m for James Packer’s La Mer development in Sydney’s Vaucluse back in 2015. One year later, Jiaer Huang and family paid $61.8m for Point Piper mansion Altona.

Altona in Point Piper. Picture: Supplied

That sale followed developer Phillip Dong Fang Lee’s purchase of another Point Piper mansion, Mandalay, for $39.9m.

A new federal government tax on foreign buyers does not appear to be making an impact on real ­estate acquisitions.

In NSW, the foreign investor surcharge rose from 4 per cent to 8 per cent while the annual land tax surcharge for foreign buyers increased from 0.75 per cent to 2 per cent two years ago.

Credit Suisse reported Hong Kong interest in Australian property­ surging 50 per cent since civil unrest erupted in June, but billionaire property developer Harry Triguboff said the ongoing Hong Kong crisis had not bolstere­d the nation’s residential market.

“Hong Kong buyers are not significant, they come here but they are not significant,” said Mr Triguboff, the founder of ­Meriton.

The List Mansion cover out on Saturday

Apart from the biggest house sales, The Weekend Australian’s The List magazine, out on Saturday, explores the suburbs where the rich live, assesses the top real estate agents of 2019 and takes a look inside spectacular mansions from the coast to the country. We also look at the trophy homes sometimes held by billionaire families for generations and that rarely come up for sale.

But as the sale of Fairwater on Sydney Harbour at $100m proved, they can command huge prices.

Don’t miss The List — Best Mansions. Where the rich live, the dream houses that never come up for sale, the real estate agent A-league. Out Saturday in The Weekend Australian.