Queensland enjoys increased popularity with Chinese investors

Queensland has emerged as one of the most popular places for China’s emerging property investors, with two cities featuring in the Chinese global top ten investment property search list.

The two cities to feature among the top ten cities in the world that Chinese buyers are eager to invest in are Brisbane and the Gold Coast, according to Chinese international real estate portal

Juwai’s co-chief executive Simon Henry, who recently visited Brisbane to attend the G20 Global Café event, said the USA topped national lists, but Australia was a close second.

“Australia had four of the top ten cities globally – Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and the Gold Coast," Mr Henry said.

Australia’s proximity, timezone, safety aspects and international reputation as a premium destination attract buyers.

Mr Henry told the Courier Mail that Chinese families are looking offshore for their second or third property investments because of cooling measures in place in China.

Searches in Queensland tended towards $1.2 to $1.3 million, although most were working off budgets that were around $2 to $3 million according to Mr Henry.

“They’re certainly not first-home-buyer type properties. They’re looking for new builds and off the plan properties in that million-dollar-plus space.”

Another significant driver is education, with upper middle-income Chinese families willing to spend up to 70 per cent of their budgets on their children’s future. This includes buying a property for their children to live in while they study.

“Australia is known as a safe place to live, with good property options available. The lifestyle is also good and some are looking ahead to moving to Australia permanently later to set up businesses or retire,” Mr Henry said.

Tom XiaoYi, of Yong International Real Estate, said the Chinese market has shown increasing interest in some of Brisbane’s suburbs.

“Sunnybank, Robertson, MacGregor, Eight Mile Plains, Sunnybank Hills, Cannonvale, Stretton, these are sought after suburbs in the Chinese market. It’s because it’s close to lots of cultural centres, restaurants, shopping, and importantly to university and good schools,” Mr XiaoYi said.

“In the past few years property prices on mainland China have skyrocketed which makes buying a house extremely unaffordable in China. It’s actually caused more people to choose to move overseas, and with Canada recently closing the door on the investor visa, Australia has become more popular.”

Mr XiaoYi predicts that Brisbane residents could fetch prices higher than pre-global financial crisis highs if they have the right combination to attract Chinese buyers.

“Enquiries have definitely increased. Chinese are very location discriminative – close to services, shopping, schools and universities. Properties they can move into straight away tend to get a lot more than those that need a bit of work,” Mr XiaoYi said.