Sydney is becoming such an attractive place for foreign investors that it's quickly becoming among considered as a prestige real estate location, Phil McCarroll of Your Investment Property reports.
The inclusion of Sydney in the ranks of global real estate powerhouses is backed by a recent report in Fairfax media outlets which showed that 8 out of 10 of the biggest residential sales in Sydney for 2015 were from foreign investors.
"This is the first time Australia has seen this level of foreign investment," Tony Crabb, national head of research at real estate franchise Savills, told Fairfax.
"Global cities like London and New York have been seeing this for a long time, but now we find the next league of high-net-worth individuals hitting the international world market are the extremely wealthy Chinese, and they are looking at cities like London, but also Vancouver, and Melbourne and Sydney," Crabb told Fairfax.
Looking at last year's numbers, where only 3 out of 10 of the high-end residential sales were funded by overseas money, it is safe to say that there has indeed been a surge of prestige real estate investments in Sydney. The city was able to set a new residential sales record this year, including the sale of the $70 million La Mer mansion in Vaucluse by James Packer, among others.
It seems that the majority of the foreign investors come from China and the demand is believed to grow by the coming year given that the Asian powerhouse has now awarded its citizens more power to drop huge capitals for outside investments.
"Our forecast is for continued growth in the premium Chinese buyer market. New data from China shows that the country now has more billionaires than any other, even the United States. Its ranks of multi-millionaires is also growing rapidly," Simon Henry, co-CEO of Juwai.com, told Your Investment Property Magazine last week.
"China is also considering the complete removal of all limits on capital exports by 2020. The Bank of England expects that to result in a 600% increase in Chinese ownership of overseas assets, including real estate," Henry said.
