The surprising Asian country where property buyers are particularly interested in Australia – here’s why

Australia is the top destination for real estate investors in Singapore as its millionaires look for a place to retire or send their children to college.

The city-state of six million people is also Australia’s largest source of foreign investment per capita, even though the Chinese buy most of Australia’s real estate.

Juwai IQI, which sells real estate to wealthy investors in Asia, found that Australia topped the list for Singaporeans who inquired between January 2020 and November 2023.

The group’s founder and CEO Kashif Ansari said Singaporeans were particularly interested in Australia as many were considering moving there or enrolling their children in an Australian university.

‘When Singaporean investors buy residential real estate overseas, they are usually trying to diversify their investments, take advantage of Singapore’s strong dollar, avoid higher transaction costs at home, provide housing for their children studying abroad, or a second home to acquire for their retirement and vacation,” he said.

Singaporeans accounted for 27.5 percent of foreign inquiries about buying property in Australia, ahead of Thailand’s 16.5 percent and Malaysia’s 13.2 percent, with potential Chinese buyers left out of Juwai IQI’s top ten countries list to stand.

But China is still Australia’s biggest source of foreign property buyers, with the Chinese buying $3.4 billion worth of real estate in Australia in 2022-23, Treasury figures show.

Singapore ranked fourth on the list with $300 million in transactions, on par with India and Taiwan, but behind Hong Kong ($600 million) and Vietnam ($400 million).

But Singapore’s investment in Australia is the highest per capita, with a population of 5.92 million, slightly more than Sydney’s 5.3 million – and well below China’s 1.4 billion.

“While total international residential real estate investment from Singapore is not comparable to the total from China, it is still well above any other country per capita,” Mr Ansari said.

Juwai IQI founder and CEO Kashif Ansari said Singaporeans were particularly interested in Australia as many were considering moving there or enrolling their children in an Australian university.

Singapore is also home to 240,100 millionaires and 27 billionaires – making it the seventh richest city in the world for high-net-worth individuals, London-based immigration consultancy Henley and Partners found.

“There are several reasons why Singapore is one of the world’s largest buyers of international real estate, but underlying this is a cultural preference for real estate investments and an abundance of capital,” Ansari said.

‘Singapore is a small country with a limited domestic market, a high level of prosperity and an international orientation.’

Foreigners can only buy an established property in Australia – or anything that is not new construction – if they are residents and can prove they live, work or study locally.

But foreigners who don’t live in Australia are only allowed to buy something that’s brand new, in a bid to encourage the construction of residential apartments to increase the supply of housing.

Permanent residents are treated differently from foreigners and do not require Foreign Investment Review Board approval to purchase a new or established property or plot of land.

Education is Australia’s fourth largest export after coal, iron ore and natural gas, worth $26.6 billion a year (pictured shows students from outside the University of New South Wales)

Education is Australia’s fourth largest export after coal, iron ore and natural gas, worth $26.6 billion in 2022, data from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade shows.

This has led to a large immigration influx with 125,410 permanent and long-term arrivals in January alone, with that figure also including international students as they stay for more than a year.

On a net basis, with departures taken into account, the figure of 55,330 for January was 40 per cent higher than the previous monthly record of 39,460 in 2009, Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Thursday showed.