The top Australian cities that Chinese buyers are flocking to

At The Adviser Asia Study Tour in Hong Kong yesterday (10 October), Jimmy Wong, the sales director of leading Chinese international property portal Juwai, revealed the top cities in Australia in which overseas Chinese property buyers are looking to invest.

According to Juwai IQ data, the United States continues to be the number one market for Chinese property investment, with Australia being the second most popular market in terms of both the amount of money being spent on property and the volume of buying enquiries.

“Factors affecting demand include the rising wealth of Chinese consumers, which is the primary driver of Chinese investment [in Australian property],” Mr Wong said, adding that there are now more than 1.6 (US dollar) millionaires living in mainland China and that that number is only expected to increase given that wealth per adult has more than quadrupled over the last six years.

Looking at the type of Chinese buyers purchasing Australian property, the sales director noted that the majority of enquiries in Australian property listings were from coastal towns as well as the major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.

“Historically, coastal towns are the richer areas in China, so it is perhaps unsurprising that the majority of enquiries for Australia properties is from provinces such as Guangdong, which is the number one province in China interested in Australian properties. Fifteen per cent of all Juwai’s Australian property listing views are coming from this region,” Mr Wong revealed.

Notably, Mr Wong also revealed the top Australian destinations that overseas Chinese buyers were looking to purchase property in.

Melbourne headed the list for demand, followed by Sydney and then Brisbane. Adelaide, Canberra and the Gold Coast are the fourth, fifth and sixth most popular Australian areas for Chinese buyers to purchase property in, followed by Perth and Hobart.

The Victorian towns of Newmerella and Walwa were the eight and ninth most popular locations, followed by NSW’s Wisemans Ferry.

“Australia has always been very popular and has been number two behind the US for the last 10 years,” Mr Wong told delegates.

“People are buying for different reasons; maybe for retirement, education, they might have friends or family studying in Australia, diversify their risk, investment and own use (people want to live there).”

Mr Wong concluded that Chinese buyer interest in Australian property was rising, and that Juwai had seen $3.55 billion worth of property enquiries for Australian properties through the website in the first half of 2018.

The Adviser Asia Study Tour comprises two days (10 and 11 October) of interactive presentations and seminars revealing how the Asian mortgage market has developed AI strategies to support traditional broking models using robo-advice to enhance the client experience.

Once again, the event aims to give forward-thinking brokers and players in the mortgage market critical insights into how their international peers dominate their respective marketplaces.

[Related: The Adviser Study Tour to reveal secrets of Asia’s dominant brokers]