Foreign Investment in Australian Real Estate

The latest issue of "Real Estate Update" issued by the Real Estate Institute of Australia carries an interesting lead article on foreign investment in Australian real estate. The article is reproduced below.

"Australian real estate continues to be the principal sector for foreign investment in Australia, according to the 2003-04 annual report of the Foreign Investment Review Board, released this month. Total foreign investment in real estate increased from $21.9 billion in 2002-03 to $28.7 billion in 2003-04.

In 2003-04 there were 114 approvals for foreign investment in commercial real estate valued at $10.43 billion.

There were 3945 approvals for foreign investment in residential real estate, with a total value of $18.31 billion. Of these 574 proposals were for "off the plan" purchases, valued at about $300 million, as well as 292 applications by developers for advance approval to sell property off the plan. There were 28 fewer approvals compared with the previous year, but the value rose by $ 3 billion to $9.1 billion.

The main location of proposed investment in Australian real estate is Queensland, which attracted 38.6% of total by value, compared with 23.7% in 2002-03. The value of investment in residential real estate was $7.28 billion.

Western Australia experienced a significant increase to 17.1% of total investment by value, up from 6.2% in 2002-03. The value of investment in residential real estate was $4.36 billion.

Foreign investment in NSW real estate fell to 27.1% of total by value, down from 39.6% in the previous year. The value of investment in residential real estate was $4.08 billion.

Foreign investment in residential real estate in other states / territories included: Victoria $1.32 billion, South Australia $0.1 billion, Tasmania $0.03 billion; ACT $0.07 billion and Northern Territory $0.01 billion.

Singaporeans were the most significant investors in Australian real estate, with approvals valued at $3.37 billion. Other investors were from the United Kingdom ($2.288 billion); United States ($1.629 billion); Malaysia ($1.065 billion); Japan ($906 million); Germany ($898 million); other European Union countries ($481 million) and China ($121 million)."

The Real Estate Institute of Australia can be contacted via www.reia.com.au

For further information on the this or any other aspect of accessing the Australian market, please email me.

David
editor@agarcarlyon.com