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Surge in Chinese housebuying spurs global backlash
Jamil Anderlini in Beijing
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©BloombergAustralia plans to impose a new tax on foreign property buyers after Chinese investment in Australian real estate soared 60 per cent last year, in the latest sign of a gathering international backlash against wealthy Chinese property investors.
The move, which came after locals complained about being priced out of the housing market, follows the introduction of similar, more punitive, taxes in Hong Kong and Singapore aimed primarily at discouraging the flood of mainland Chinese money into those markets. Governments in all three locations say that the new taxes are not directed at any single nationality.In the past year, mainland Chinese buyers have become the biggest single group of foreign investors in residential property in the US, UK and Australia, as well as in key cities in other western countries, according to real estate brokers.
In the year to March 2014, mainland Chinese buyers accounted for nearly a quarter of all foreign purchasers of residential real estate in the US, spending about $22bn, compared with $12.8bn a year earlier, according to the US National Association of Realtors. Canadians, the second biggest group, spent $13.8bn in the same period.
Most apartments being built by Chinese developers in prime markets such as New York, London and Sydney are also being sold directly to mainland Chinese buyers.
The UK, Australia, Canada and the US are the most popular destinations for Chinese real estate investment. Australia had the strongest growth in inbound real estate investment from China in 2014, with an increase of more than 60 per cent, according to estimates from property consultancy Knight Frank, based on official Australian data.
In London, Chinese buyers accounted for 11 per cent of all property transactions above £1m in 2014, up from 4 per cent in 2012, according to Knight Frank. The comparable figure for Russian buyers, the second-largest group, was 5 per cent — a proportion that has hardly changed for several years.
Total value of investment in overseas real estate by Chinese institutional investors has also ballooned from $600m in 2009 to about $15bn last year, according to Knight Frank estimates.
Jin Guo, head of Asia at Cordea Savills, a real estate investor, says: “It is actually very difficult to properly trace volumes of individual Chinese property purchases abroad since most people do not register with any government agency and they get their money out of China using informal channels.
“But . . . we have seen estimates from the US, Australia and UK showing 20-30 per cent of foreign buyers are from China.”
Analysts say the rush of Chinese money into western property markets is the result of a complex combination of factors.
The enormous overcapacity and recent slowdown in China’s domestic property market has pushed many wealthy people to diversify their investments into offshore assets.
This has been made easier and more attractive by the collapse in property prices in many western markets that followed the 2008 financial crisis and the huge rise in Chinese prices over the past decade.
“The domestic Chinese market is very unstable, full of bubbles and depends on government policy,” says Cathy Zhang, senior sales consultant at Ausunland Group.
Prices for prime residential real estate in cities such as Los Angeles and Miami are roughly 25 per cent lower than in Shanghai.
Government restrictions, worsening pollution and decrepit health and social services have also led many Chinese to buy property in more developed countries they may wish to eventually emigrate to. Add to that the anxiety generated by the anti-corruption campaign launched by President Xi Jinping two years ago.
$15bnTotal value of investment in overseas real estate by Chinese institutional investors
Although few in the industry will openly discuss it, some acknowledge privately that fear among Chinese officials and businesspeople has been a big factor in the surge of investment into western real estate. The Chinese government has stepped up efforts to repatriate corrupt officials and recover offshore assets, including luxury foreign properties.
“The ongoing purge and the fear of losing everything if you are caught up in an anti-corruption investigation or a political fight has convinced many in China to diversify to places with clear and stable legal and political environments,” says one figure at a large property advisory company.Capital controls restrict Chinese residents from exchanging more than $50,000 in foreign currency each year, which would make it almost impossible for a Chinese person to buy a prime residential property abroad.
This means effectively that all property purchases by Chinese nationals overseas are technically illegal.
Questions over the provenance of much of the Chinese money streaming into cities such as New York, London and Sydney will also add to growing resentment among locals who feel they are being priced out of the market.
Analysts expect the backlash to spread as Chinese investment continues to rise and politicians face increasing pressure to act.
The Australian government has proposed “application fees” of A$10,000 (US$7,800) for every A$1m that foreign buyers spend on Australian property.
It has also pledged to enforce an existing law that prohibits non-residents from buying existing — rather than newly built — housing. Offenders could be fined up to 25 per cent of the value of the property and forced to sell it.
The UK government has made a series of tax changesin the past three years aimed at discouraging wealthy foreign buyers from the London housing market. The crackdown focused particularly on homes bought using offshore companies, which make it hard to trace a property’s ownership.
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从各国公民权的角度考虑，这也是意料之中的事。
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本地媒体更关注的，是许家印的私人飞机可能带来新一批的海外投资热潮。因为就在本周，KPMG发布报告，称新西兰的银行担心海外资本涌入会为房地产市场带来压力，最后骑虎难下。
对此，新西兰财政部长Bill English还是那句老话，海外投资可能会对本地房地产市场有影响，但应该不是最大的影响所在。
迄今为止，新西兰政府依然不支持监控甚至限制海外资本购买新西兰物业，这也是媒体特别敏感的所在。本周，澳大利亚政府已经先行一步，抛出计划收紧海外资本购买澳洲物业的限制。根据最新建议，购买澳洲住宅房地产的外国买家至少需要交5000澳元费用。财长Joe Hockey说：“对于任何想要购买价格在100澳元以下住宅物业的外国投资者来说，他们需要交5000澳元的申请费。超过100万澳元的物业，购买价格每多100万，就要交1万澳元。”。此外，澳大利亚还要设立新的登记处，确定有多少外国的住宅和农业业主在澳洲，他们是谁。
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不同国家情况不同，不会一刀切的搞这种，新西兰很难出台有效政策
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这么多人看房，比新西兰人多多了
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who cares.
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新西兰政府啊。。。赶紧的
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这个政府有些短视.
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就是，隔壁老大哥都动手了，新西兰赶紧的
弄一堆泡沫最后还是自己倒霉，限制些比较好
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自由经济，无法限制，感觉国家党这种自由派更不会限制。
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是挺难的。让市场来决定吧。