Asian Developers

"Foreign developers have grabbed a 30 per cent share of Australia's apartment market, a trend not repeated since the Japanese office and hotel development boom in the late 1980s.

Overseas investors are behind 13,000 apartments in 37 projects in Australia. Based on the average number of apartments completed in 2011, that represents a market share of as much as 32 per cent, research by the property group CBRE finds.

About 40 per cent of projects are under construction; the rest are at the planning or marketing stage."

See Fairfax

So it appears that Asian developers are building small apartments in Australia for Asia buyers that are rented to Asian students.  When the tide goes out, will Australians want to buy or live in these boxes?

Chinese Buyers

A website for Chinese buyers of real estate outside China is in the process of being launched.  It is called Juwai.  There are already a bunch of Australian listings.

"The site has more than 1 million property listings from over 80,000 agents and developers in the US, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and Japan.   Schwartz says there a “huge need” for such a site."  See Property Observer.

Chinese Retreat

"Australia’s largest apartment developer, Harry Triguboff, has confirmed that Chinese buying of inner-Sydney apartments has halved in the last month. The China squeeze on its property market and fears about the level of our dollar are now having a direct effect on the Australian dwelling market. 

Triguboff believes that the sharp cutback in Chinese apartment demand will probably reduce apartment prices in Sydney by about 10%, but the prices will not collapse. He believes that a fall in apartment prices will flow on to the whole dwelling market in Sydney."
Full story here.
Harry Triguboff is the owner of Meriton, that is developing  two massive apartment towers in Brisbane, Soleil and Infinity, where most of the buyers are reported to be Chinese.  It is uncertain what impact China will have on the Brisbane apartment market.

China's Property Bubble Deflating?

According to Dragonomics, sales volume in the nine cities it tracks fell by about half since the start of the year.

In Beijing, that has meant rising rents, say real-estate agents.

Zhang Kai, an agent at Home Link in middle-class neighbourhood Tuanjiehu said the number of sales had dropped by half since February and monthly rents for small apartments jumped to about 3000 yuan in June from 2500 yuan a month earlier.

Many apartment owners don't want to sell, he said, because they are waiting for prices to turn around.

The Australian

China's Ghost Towns

It is said that there are around 64 million empty apartments in China.

Have a look at SBS and BBC and Time.

So what will happen to the Australian real estate market and Australian economy when the Chinese bubble bursts?

"Chinese love the Sunshine State"

Story from the AFR on Friday last week -- "Chinese love the Sunshine State". The article states: "Half a dozen significant high-rise properties on the Gold Coast and Brisbane, which are believed to have secured a significant proportion of foreign investors, are due to settle in the next 12 months."

See also Gold Coast Bulliten