Australia remains attractive to overseas buyers despite decrease in Chinese investment

The latest FIRB report on foreign investment showed the US recorded a $10 billion increase in approved investment to $36 billion in 2017-18, with significant increases in real estate and the manufacturing, electricity and gas sectors. China was the second largest source country with a $15 billion decrease in approved proposed investment to $23 billion. The reduction in approved Chinese investment was due to falls across all investment sectors, especially property. Chinese investment in real estate dropped to $12.7 billion in 2017-18 from $15.3 billion the year before, though China accounted for a quarter of foreign real estate investment. Victoria gets the greatest share of Chinese residential investment, receiving 46 per cent of all approvals, with NSW in a distant second with 23 per cent, followed by Queensland’s 17 per cent. The data doesn’t track people who don’t need to request approval, which means NSW might be actually getting more investment. Chinese buying is being impacted by several factors, local and international. There’s been the unexpected cancelling of promised mortgage loans by Australian banks, plus the higher foreign stamp duty taxes, along with Chinese government capital controls making it more difficult to move money from China.