BRICS nations eye Australian property

Data collected by Century 21 over an eight-week period in May, June and July shows that BRICS nations accounted for half of the top 10 sources of growth in online traffic when compared to the same period last year.

Website traffic from Russia expanded the most (252 per cent), with traffic from Brazil growing by the second highest amount (104 per cent).

“I think it may come as a surprise to many people that while there is increasing online interest from China in Australian property, the top three sources of website traffic from overseas are the USA, UK and New Zealand,” Century 21 Australia chairman and owner Charles Tarbey said.

“China placed eighth as a source of traffic to our Australian website and fourth in terms of growth in visitor numbers,” Mr Tarbey said.

“I believe the key take-out here may be that there is interest in the Australian property market from all over the world – not only Asian buyers.

“That being said, it is clear from the data that developing nations are becoming increasingly interested in Australian property,” he said.

Online visitors from the Philippines, China, Italy, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Africa, Indonesia and India rounded out the list of the top 10 fastest-growing sources of visitors to the Century 21 Australia website.

Mr Tarbey said the current regulations encourage foreign investment into new housing, which he believes is critical for the future affordability and strength of the domestic property market.