Melbourne is currently the top pick from Chinese property buyers. As per the latest reports and expert findings, Melbourne is the most popular city for Chinese residential realty buyers. The growing interest from overseas buyers is a heartening trend at a time when the Federal and Victorian Governments have already ushered in levies for foreign buyers in Melbourne and also with China taking a tough stance on capital outflows. Chinese buyers have been attracted to Melbourne due to its status as the most livable city in the world. Melbourne is also home to some of the best universities and schools in the world and offers comparatively affordable rates in comparison with Sydney according to experts.
A whopping 40% of inquiries pertaining to property in Australia on Chinese portals were focused on Melbourne throughout the first 7 months in 2017. This went up from 35.6% one year earlier. Sydney had 17.5% of inquiries this year, which represented a minimal increase in comparison to the previous year. Demand went up by 13.3% in the first half of the year in Melbourne as compared to the same period last year according to experts.
Chinese buyers are still hedging their bets on global property and Australian real estate is perceived to be safer by them. Australia offers better value in comparison to prices of similar properties in China according to experts and the taxes of the Victorian Government have not had a major impact on education and lifestyle buyers. Foreign residential property purchases draw taxes of 7% in Victoria and 8% in NSW, which is higher than the 3% and 4% earlier. Top suburbs in Melbourne include the CBD, Point Cook’s western suburbs, inner-city Southbank, Preston and Tarneit.
According to experts, on previous occasions when the capital control roles had been changed by the Chinese Government, buyers had been more interested in shifting their money to a country like Australia which offers a transparent, stringently regulated and safe environment. While demand may have come down overall in case of Chinese investors, it has remained steady from families who want their children to pursue higher education in Australia.
