Is this the end of foreign investors buying Australian property?
Sydney largest property developer, Meriton’s Harry Triguboff, estimates that in the last month or so Chinese buying has halved.
And with Chinese and other Asian buyers buying over 80% of Sydney’s new apartments in recent years, this is a significant development with serious consequences.
Why have the Chinese stopped buying?
It’s likely to be a combination of the fact that it is becoming increasingly difficult to transfer money out of China and Australian banks having withdrawn the welcome mat for overseas buyers.
And it won’t be helped by today’s announcement that the National Australia Bank will join the other major banks and tighten lending criteria for Chinese buyers.
Earlier this week Westpac Bank and the other banks in it’s group – St George Bank, Bank of Melbourne and Bank SA, stopped lending to all foreign residential property buyers.