A study by Hong Kong-based equity brokers CLSA, including data from more than 50 meetings with industry contacts, says the phenomenal investment will continue for at least another three years.
“China is now the number 1 source of foreign-capital investment in Australian real estate”
Chinese residents want to emigrate to English-speaking countries, where there is a strong common law process, says CLSA. A good education system is essential and, as China’s pollution problems escalate, a clean environment is becoming more important.
About 45% of the 70 million people in the top-income bracket in China express intentions to emigrate.
Building investments outside of China is an important step in keeping open emigration options.
And given the obsession with property investment, it is only logical that the purchase of property is key to that strategy.
The main driver for new property purchases is apartments, either newly constructed or off the plan.
The local real estate industry is capitalising on the new wave.
Sydney-based real estate agent John McGrath, which sold $7 billion of residential property in 2013, recently established a China desk and now publishes a Chinese language version of the McGrath Magazine.