More wealthy Chinese are moving their money out of China to invest in Australia’s property market as a corruption crackdown in the world’s second biggest economy gathers momentum, property consultants and lawyers said.
They said their clients had told them they had legitimate funds to invest but were concerned about being caught up in an investigation, which in China often delves into the affairs of dozens of associates of the main target, and losing that wealth.
“What we see at the moment is that there are more Chinese who would likely send more money out of the country so they don’t get caught up in this crackdown,” David Green-Morgan, global capital markets research director at real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), said.
It’s one of the most visible signs of the fear being caused in China by President Xi Jinping’s 18-month-old drive against the pervasive graft that he says threatens the Communist Party’s survival, a fear that is even causing some officials to take their own lives.
Beijing’s campaign has particularly targeted so-called ‘naked officials’, the term for state employees whose spouses or children live overseas. Those officials are generally suspected by the party of using such connections to illegally move assets.
Ordinary Chinese citizens can legally transfer only $50,000 overseas each year, but vast sums leak out of China using a variety of loopholes, such as funnelling money through the Chinese territory of Hong Kong.
Australian property has long been a popular choice for Chinese money – both legitimate and illegitimate – but the flow of investment appears to have accelerated of late.
According to Australia’s foreign investment review board, China was the No.1 source of foreign capital investment into Australia’s real estate in 2013.
“They are worried so they are looking for a safe place,” said a Sydney-based immigration lawyer, who is advising on setting up a new fund exclusively for Chinese investors and regularly travels to Beijing and Shanghai.
“They don’t want returns, not necessarily. They want a safe place,” he added.
China is expected to see an annual growth of 20 per cent in outbound real estate investment in the next decade, up from $11.5 billion last year, property agent Savills has forecast.
That will help push Chinese demand in Australian property by 15 per cent over the next 12 months, said Andrew Taylor, co-CEO of Juwai.com, the largest real estate portal that targets Chinese buyers looking abroad.
Australian property has long been a popular choice for Chinese money
Such strong interest is likely to boost Australia’s apartment construction, which is set to hit record levels by 2017 and remain elevated through to 2020, Brokerage CLSA said in a report this month titled ‘The magic dragon’.
Wealthy Chinese have long been pouring money into real estate in major cities in North America, Europe and Asia, including New York, London and Sydney.
But some of their favourite markets are becoming less attractive for Chinese investors: A 15 per cent stamp duty introduced for foreign buyers in Hong Kong and Singapore, where cash-rich mainland Chinese had been blamed for driving up prices, has cooled interest, while Canada recently cancelled its Immigrant Investor Programme, popular with wealthy Chinese.
Australia, in contrast, may ease rules on a visa scheme aimed at luring investment from wealthy Chinese after complaints that disclosure requirements are too strict, lawyers and migration agents have said.