Chinese investors doubled their investment in Australian real estate from $12.4 billion in 2013-14 to $24.3 billion in 2014-15, reports Sydney Property Experts (12 April 2016). Based on the latest annual report from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB), China – for the second year in a row – invested more than a quarter of all foreign real estate investment to reign as the largest foreign investor in Australia, topping the United States. Juwai.com CEO Charles Pittar said the report refutes ‘the China bears’ who had claimed Chinese investments to be ‘falling off a cliff’. “China’s share has risen from less than one-tenth to more than one-quarter of all of foreign real estate investment in Australia since 2012. China’s immense pent-up demand for international property is driving this trend. There will be ups and downs, without a doubt, but the long-term trend is up,” added Pittar.
