Foreign buyers flock to Australian property market

An increasing number of foreign buyers are looking to buy property in Australia, it has been reported.

According to figures from the Real Estate Buyers Association of Australia (REBAA), foreign buyers purchased AUD 23.4 billion worth of property in Australia during the worst of the financial crisis during 2008/09, with Sydney in particular seeing high demand.

Purchases from people overseas amounted to 3,639 new and existing homes and 988 parcels of land.

REEBA says that agents have increasingly targeted foreign nationals as rising interest rates have priced many domestic buyers out of the mortgage market.

"We see a lot of interest from Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo and the UK. They know the market is depressed and they are making huge capital gains and are reinvesting into the market," said Byron Rose, president of REBAA.

Australia's Housing Industry Association recently announced that high interest rates and difficulty in securing finance is leading to a falling number of new homes being built in the country.

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