The suburbs Chinese buyers are flocking to and the surprising properties they’re favoring now as immigration hits a record high

Chinese interest in Australian property is now so high that interested buyers are having to make an appointment to view homes in large groups, an agent has revealed.

Peter Li, managing director of property agency Plus Agency in Sydney and Shanghai, said he was now organizing seminars for up to 20 buyers at a time – with drinks and snacks.

“Normally walk-ins are attended to individually by the agent who is currently in the office/showroom, but there are now too many for that,” he told Daily Mail Australia.

“We take buyers in groups to the buildings they most want to see.”

Sydney’s most popular suburb for Chinese shoppers and residents, alongside the CBD, is Chatswood on the north shore.

Juwai IQI, which markets properties to potential Asian buyers, said the typical Chinese buyer is now much more likely to be a permanent resident than a foreigner.

Chinese interest in Australian property is now so high that potential buyers have to make an appointment to be shown houses in large groups, an estate agent has revealed (pictured are potential buyers in Sydney).

Daniel Ho, managing director and co-founder of the group, said this meant they were buying an apartment instead of renting it out and wanted more space.

“Today’s Chinese buyer is very different to the Chinese buyer of 2019, pre-Covid,” Mr Ho told Daily Mail Australia.

“Before the pandemic, offshore investment buyers accounted for a larger share of Chinese purchases, but no longer.”

“Most Chinese buyers today are buying for personal use and intend to move to Australia.”

“Many already live here as permanent residents or holders of two passports.”

“This means Chinese buyers are now looking for larger apartments, townhouses or single-family homes.”

“They are less likely to buy a one-bedroom apartment or a small two-bedroom downtown apartment.”

In the year to July, Australia’s net permanent and long-term intake was a record high of 399,850.

Based on pure arrivals before departures, 1,041,400 people moved to Australia in a year, including skilled migrants and international students among the 122,690 who moved in July alone, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed.

Including tourists and short-term work visas, the total number of arrivals in Australia was 1,743,390, the highest since January 2020, just before the pandemic, and up 61.2 percent, or 661,790, from a year earlier.

Permanent residents are allowed to purchase an existing home, but foreigners are limited to a new house or apartment or vacant land and must have approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board.

An article by Song Shi, an associate professor at the University of Technology’s Sydney School of Built Environment, found that Chatswood is both the only suburb in the top 10 lists for Chinese buyers and the place where the most Chinese live.

Just under half, or 42.4 percent, of Chatswood residents reported Chinese ancestry in the 2021 census.

The median house price of $2.93 million is well over double the median house price in Sydney of $1.36 million.

Chatswood’s 2.6 per cent increase last year was stronger than the 1.3 per cent rise in Greater Sydney, CoreLogic data showed.

But it was well below the 16.3 per cent rise in Hurlstone Park, which brought the average house price in that part of southwest Sydney to $2.014 million.

Mr Shi’s research, published in the Journal of Housing Studies, found that Sydney city center is the most popular suburb for Chinese buyers, followed by Sydney Olympic Park, Parramatta, Edmondson Park, Chatswood, Macquarie Park, Epping, West Ryde, Potts Point and Mosman.

Chatswoood (pictured) on Sydney’s north shore is popular with Chinese shoppers and locals

In the year to July, Australia’s net permanent and long-term intake was a record high of 399,850 (Chatswood station pictured).

In terms of population proportion, Burwood, Eastwood, Hurstville, Rhodes, Chatswood, Haymarket, Carlingford, Chippendale, Zetland and Ultimo had the highest proportion of people of Chinese descent.

Mr Shi said Chinese restrictions on capital outflows in 2017 only affected a small number of Sydney suburbs, arguing that Chinese demand only drove up prices where there was a large concentration of Chinese.

“We found that the only Sydney suburbs where Chinese buyers appeared to have a strong influence on prices were those with large concentrations of Chinese residents,” he said.