Where are Chinese investors buying property in Australia?

Earlier this year I wrote about the extent to which Chinese investment in Australian real estate has mushroomed over the past few years.

 

Unfortunately the Foreign Investment Review Board is not due to release its 2015 Annual Report for some time, and furthermore not all states release full disclosure of foreign land ownership.

 

One state which does so is Queensland, and indeed its Annual Report for the 2015 financial year was released only this week.

Also read: Chinese to buy $60bn in Australian housing

 

The Foreign Ownership of Land Register (which requires disclose of the ownership of freehold or leasehold land) provided further evidence that Chinese investment in Queensland has absolutely exploded, with the value of annual acqusitions soaring by more than 170 per cent in the space of only two financial years from $323 million to $873 million.

 

This accounted for a greater value of investment than all five of the other major countries disclosed combined.

 

URBAN FOCUS

 

The data shows that while British interests continue to own the greatest land AREA in Queensland, Chinese investors have been very much focussed on the acquisition of urban land, in particular locations in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast.

 

Indeed, Chinese investors accounted for a thunderous 63 per cent of foreign interest land acquisitions on the Gold Coast in 2014-15.

Also read: Foreign property investment hits record

 

Meanwhile, foreign interest land acquisitions in Brisbane for the financial year were overwhelmingly mopped up by investors from China (37 per cent), Singapore (33 per cent), and Hong Kong (8 per cent).

 

The value of foreign land acquisitions in the financial year away from Brisbane and the Gold Coast was considerably lower.

The interest of Chinese investors in Australian property is set to scale unprecedented heights in 2016, but the impacts of this are not always well understood.