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Flush with savings accumulated during the pandemic and free to travel internationally again, Chinese people are flocking to Australia determined to buy property, according to local agents who are seeing twice or three times as many enquiries from Chinese buyers as in previous years.

“So far this year, Australia is the favourite country for Chinese buyers of overseas real estate, a dramatic improvement from its third-place ranking in 2021,” said Daniel Ho, co-founder and group managing director of property-tech firm Juwai IQI. “Buyer enquiries in the first three months are 127 per cent higher than in the prior quarter.”

The increase in Chinese buyers, both Australian residents and foreign-resident buyers, is obvious to Peter Li, general manager of the Sydney and Shanghai real estate agency Plus Agency.

“The number of Chinese buyers, conservatively, has tripled since this time last year,” he said. “In certain areas like [north-shore Sydney suburb] Chatswood, it has gone up by 500 per cent. When we do an open-for-inspection, last year we might have had one or two Chinese come through, while this year I’ll have five or 10.”

Mainland Chinese buyers are looking for property both for investment purposes and, increasingly, to occupy, agents and analysts said.

“Chinese households added more than US$2.6 trillion to their bank balances in 2022,” Ho said. “Their bank deposits now exceed US$18 trillion. That’s larger than [China’s] entire gross domestic product and is 11 per cent higher than would be expected from pre-pandemic trends, according to analysts.”

For Chinese buyers looking for higher returns than they can get in their domestic housing or stock markets, “what better way to engage in some post-pandemic revenge spending than buying a home overseas?” Ho asked.

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Besides the border opening, another reason for the high interest is Beijing’s requirement that Chinese people who study in Australia must be in the country for the whole duration of their degree to be certified by the Chinese government, Li said.

Australia is closer to China than the US and other investment destinations, and the minimal time difference with China makes homes in Australia convenient for conducting business remotely, Li added.

International diplomacy has also helped buoy demand for Australian homes, said Ken Jacobs, managing director of his own luxury property agency in Sydney.

“There has been an uptick in interest from mainland China,” he said. “And I suspect the easing of recent tensions between the two governments, combined with the ability to travel by the lifting of Covid-19 travel restrictions, is spurring this interest.”

Jacobs noted that his Chinese clients typically prefer flats in prime areas, prestige houses around the Sydney Harbour and those close to private schools for their children’s education.

“Eighty per cent of our buyers at high-end [properties] open for inspections are mainland Chinese,” said Jamie Mi, partner and head of international at Kay & Burton. “The sweet spot for Chinese buyers is around A$20 million [US$13.3 million]. We see an increasing number of transactions in the A$40 million to A$60 million range. Above that, the majority of buyers are also coming from Asia, but that’s the top of the pyramid.”

For the A$60 million properties that her agency is marketing, Mi said 80 per cent of the qualified potential buyers are Chinese.

“They are coming back to Australia in a serious mood,” Mi said. “In the past they were just looking for investment. Now, they want to live in Australia. They want to live like a local.”

Mi cited Australia’s stable government, clean air and quality schools as draws.

“Australia is becoming so popular compared to the US, Canada and the UK, because of the climate, the culture and the acceptance from the government of immigration,” she said.

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