Sydney Property Market Seen As A Global Hotspot

Phil McCarroll writes an article for the website Your Investment Property where he talks about Sydney’s introduction to the global property market as a “prestige hotspot”. This can be put down to the keen interest shown by foreign buyers towards Sydney real estate.

Sydney is indeed a global hotspot

A reliable report suggests that out of the last 10 prestige market sales in Sydney, eight were paid for by foreign funds. In the past, foreign capital has been restricted to cities like London and New York but lately, a lot of newly rich Chinese investors are looking at hotspots like Vancouver, Sydney and even Melbourne.

Chinese investors to join in a flurry

Things are only going to get better as China eases foreign investment regulations in the wake of its entrepreneurs gaining the capability to invest more in foreign properties. It is interesting to note that China boasts of a higher number of billionaires than the United States, and that is no mean statistic!

You can read the original article here.

Regulations around foreign investment

We just need to be cautious that we have regulations in place to filter out fraudulent investments. It is great news that the newly affluent Chinese businessmen are looking towards our shores but unless we exercise caution, we may be looking at a lot of illegal foreign money being laundered in the name of property purchase with the help of Australian front companies.

Fee regime

Already, we have made a bad move by encouraging the fee regime. A $5,000 or a $10,000 fee for entering our market is a peanut price for those who have money laundering in mind. It only gives them further encouragement because they feel that the Australian government is ready to indulge them for what is a really small entry cost.

It is good to note that premier regulating authorities are spending hours trying to track down bogus deals and also imposing sizeable penalties on those who have trespassed. Here is wishing that our efforts prove stronger than the effort of those who are willing to break the law in the name of foreign investment.