House prices have increased as much as 27% in the past 12 months in Sydney — which is almost thrice faster than the overall rate in Australia — thanks to a large wave of Chinese homebuyers comprising of both local resident Chinese and those from mainland China, reports Bloomberg (29 January 2014). Australia is highly popular with Chinese buyers, and based on data from the RP Data-Rismark Home Value index, housing prices in major cities in Australia charted the fastest calendar-year growth since 2009, rising as much as 9.8% in 2013. In the 3 months to September, the proportion of foreign home investors in Australia more than doubled to 12.5%. As the second most preferred country for Chinese homebuyers, Juwai.com also saw a massive surge from Chinese investors — page views from China on Australia shot up 266% during the months of January till August 2013. According to Juwai.com Co-CEO, Andrew Taylor, “There is strong interest in Australian property because of its stable housing market, regulatory protection and the all-important time zone, which is two or three hours ahead of Shanghai depending on the time of year".
