Add CategoryAustralia remains the top international destination for Asian property buyers despite the country being named the most unaffordable market in the world, a new report found.
The Quarter 1 Asia-Pacific cross-border residential property buying trends report by IQI – a partner of Juwai – found Australia continued to hold favoured nation status among Asians looking for international homes – with their hottest targets now Brisbane and Perth, but other capitals wider afield also in their sights.
It said the biggest drawcards were “its proximity, lifestyle, large immigration intake and educational opportunities”.
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Australia is the top destination for Asian property buyers and Brisbane is their most popular target, along with Perth.
Of around $5.3b in residential property purchases by Asian buyers in the first nine months of last year, more than half ($2.5b) were from people of mainland Chinese origin. Hong Kong buyers bought $300m worth of homes, as did those from Vietnam, Taiwan and Nepal. Buyers from Indonesia $200m worth of homes, and Singapore and Malaysia both were about $100m.
Juwai IQI co-founder Daniel Ho said Asian buyers were spreading their wings across the Australian market, looking at a wide range of possibilities.
“The most attractive markets for Asian buyers are Perth and Brisbane for price growth and proximity to Southeast Asia,” he said, “Victoria for its greater availability of new construction dwellings, and Sydney for lifestyle”.
“Asian buyers are no longer just settling into a few CBD suburbs. Now they are ranging deep across the metro areas of the major capital cities. They do it for the same reason as locals. They are looking for larger homes, in some actual houses rather than apartments, and lower prices.”
Perth’s advantages with educational opportunities and lifestyle are drawing Asian buyers to its residential property now.
He said “what’s bringing Chinese to Australia are opportunities to study, work, retire, or vacation”.
“Australians might go to the US to study or to Bali to vacation and buy a home there. It’s the same with Chinese buyers. They have very similar motivations and desires as Australians, and for them Australia is an attractive destination.”
Mr Ho said Chinese travel numbers were finally back to pre-pandemic levels, sitting at 106 per cent of 2019 level during the 2024 Chinese New Year travel period.
The IQI report said most buyers were not outright investors but buying for a combination of their own use and investment.
Juwai IQI co-founder and group managing director Daniel Ho.
“Relatively high purchasing and holding costs for nonresidents make pure investment less attractive than in prior years,” it said. “Australia’s large annual intake of overseas students and migrants helps create new demand for purchases. As the federal government limits foreign students with a goal of cutting net overseas migration, this could weaken.”
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The report comes as Australia was last week named the least unaffordable place to buy real estate in the world with five of its major housing markets declared “severely unaffordable since the early 2000s or before”.
The 2024 Demographia international housing affordability report had found the Australian capitals “impossibly unaffordable” in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide while Brisbane was “severely unaffordable” and Perth was the 75th least unaffordable market in the world.