The suburbs Chinese buyers are flocking to and surprising properties they now prefer as immigration hits record high

Chinese interest in Australian real estate is now so great that interested buyers must make appointments to view homes in large groups, an estate agent has revealed.

Peter Li, the managing director of Sydney and Shanghai property firm Plus Agency, said he is now organizing seminars for up to 20 buyers at a time – with drinks and snacks.

“Normally walk-in buyers are dealt with one by one by the agent based in the office/showroom, but there are too many for that now,” he told Daily Mail Australia.

‘We take buyers in groups to the properties they most want to see.’

Chatswood, along with the CBD, is a popular Sydney suburb for Chinese buyers and residents alike.

Juwai IQI, which sells property to potential Asian buyers, said the typical Chinese buyer is now much more likely to be a permanent resident than a foreigner.

Daniel Ho, director and co-founder of the group, said this meant they were buying a property rather than renting it out, and they wanted more space.

“Today’s Chinese buyer is very different from the Chinese buyer of 2019, pre-Covid,” Mr Ho told Daily Mail Australia.

“Before the pandemic, offshore investment buyers accounted for a larger share of Chinese purchases, but that is no longer the case.

“Most Chinese buyers these days are buying for personal use and planning to move to Australia.

‘Many already live here as permanent residents or as holders of two passports.

‘That means that Chinese buyers today are looking for larger apartments, townhouses or single-family homes.

“They are less likely to buy a one-bedroom apartment or a small two-bedroom apartment downtown.”

In the year to July, permanent and long-term inflows into Australia reached a record high of 399,850, on a net basis.

Based on pre-departure arrivals, 1,041,400 people have moved to Australia in a year, along with skilled migrants and international students among the 122,690 who moved in July alone, Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows.

When tourists and short-term work visas are included, Australia’s total arrivals of 1,743,390 were the highest since January 2020, shortly before the pandemic, and 61.2 percent or 661,790 higher than a year earlier.

Permanent residents may purchase an existing home, but foreigners are limited to a new home or apartment, or vacant land, and must obtain approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Australian real estate is increasingly seen as a good investment as Chinese developers Evergrande and Country Garden struggle to repay their debts after years of building ghost apartments.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ‘three red lines’ policy, which limits what developers can borrow, has led to capital flight.

His crackdown on Hong Kong’s freedom of speech and entrepreneurs has also made Australia a more attractive destination for the wealthy.

An article by Song Shi, associate professor at the University of Technology, Sydney’s School of Built Environment, shows that Chatswood is the only suburb in both the top 10 lists for Chinese buyers and home to the largest number of Chinese.

Just under half, or 42.4 percent, of Chatswood residents reported being of Chinese descent in the 2021 census.

The average house price of $2.93 million is more than double the average house price of $1.36 million in Sydney.

The 2.6 per cent increase in Chatswood over the past year was stronger than the 1.3 per cent increase in Sydney, CoreLogic data showed.

But it was well below the 16.3 per cent increase in Hurlstone Park, which took the average house price in this part of south-west Sydney to $2.014 million.

Mr Shi’s research, published in the Journal of Housing Studies, shows that Sydney city center is the most popular suburb for Chinese buyers, followed by Sydney Olympic Park, Parramatta, Edmondson Park, Chatswood, Macquarie Park, Epping, West Ryde , Potts Point and Mosman.

Chatswoood (pictured) on Sydney’s north shore is popular with Chinese buyers and Chinese

In the year to July, permanent and long-term inflows into Australia reached a record high of 399,850, on a net basis (pictured is Chatswood train station)

In terms of share of population, Burwood, Eastwood, Hurstville, Rhodes, Chatswood, Haymarket, Carlingford, Chippendale, Zetland and Ultimo had the highest proportion of people with Chinese ancestry.

Mr Shi said Chinese restrictions on capital fund outflows in 2017 affected only a small number of Sydney suburbs, arguing that Chinese demand only drove up prices where there was a high concentration of Chinese.

“We found that the only Sydney suburbs where Chinese buyers appeared to have had a strong impact on prices were those with large concentrations of Chinese residents,” he said. The conversation.