Expats Keeping Sydney’s Real Estate Humming
Closed borders have done little to dampen the demand for luxury property in Sydney as expats have stepped in where foreign buyers left off prior to the pandemic. A steady stream of off-shore purchasers had been snapping up Sydney’s mega mansions in the 2010s, but after the federal government tightened buying restrictions for non-Australian residents in 2018-19, their numbers had been declining. Right now their absence really has no effect whatsoever on the top end of the market, because there are that many expats filling their place, said Michael Pallier, director of Sydney Sotheby’s International Realty. The number of long-term returning residents (those who had spent a minimum of 12 months out of the country) has dramatically fallen since the outbreak of Covid-19, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The number of returning expats in March was 10,320, however that plummeted to 1,250 in April when Australia implemented strict travel restrictions effectively banning short term visits. By September the figure had only climbed to 2,530. Despite the dramatic drop in people returning home, property experts say those arriving are here to stay—and are actively house hunting. Knight Frank survey showed that 64% of expats admitted lockdowns had influenced their decision to buy a property in their home country. Those house hunting in Australia were coming from mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, the U.S. and the U.K. And although the report showed most international expats, house hunting budgets sat below US$3 million. Higher budgets were evident for those buying in Australia, as well as Switzerland and France.
Tags : INTERNATIONAL Real Estate Sydney COVID-19 Expats luxury property