Chinese investment has continued pouring in for Australian real estate. The signs have been obvious for the residential sector with demand from foreign buyers overall having risen to a market share of 7.9 per cent across the country. Incidentally, this foreign appetite for investment has also spilled over to commercial property.

The Stonebridge Asia practice have sold 65% to Asian backed capital for strip retail and sub-$8 million investment opportunities so far this year. Stonebridge Asia Practice manager, Sarah Xi, commented on this saying “The clear trend of Chinese buyers looking at commercial real estate over residential investments has increased consistently over the course of the year. We have had more and more buyers get in contact with us who had traditionally only looked at residential investments”

Sarah Xi continued “The advantages of investing in commercial are being more understood by overseas buyers. These advantages include much less restrictions when buying commercial investments compared to residential, no extra stamp duty, higher returns, more stable tenants and also longer lease terms as well”

The Stonebridge Asia Practice recently hosted a seminar event targeted towards their third party referral networks which included residential agents, migration agents, lawyers, accountants and also project sales agents. The theme of the event was to ask the referral networks if their clients had considered commercial real estate investments, in addition to residential, and the response from the market exceeded expectations.

Stonebridge Asia Practice partner, Chao Zhang, commented on this saying “we invited 100 referral partners with expectations that we would have 20-30 people interested to attend. However we had 70+ referrers come along to the event which was well above expectations and a clear sign that our referral partners are getting asked more questions from their clients about commercial real estate.”

Chao Zhang continued “The high attendance number of agents, accountants, and lawyers etc. to want to know more about the commercial landscape is a clear sign for us that the market is hungry for commercial assets and there’s more and more buyers out there will be considering commercial development and investment opportunities.”

The Stonebridge Asia Practice has transacted over $240 million to Asian backed capital in 2023 so far, which includes a string of transactions in the Box Hill Activity Centre along Prospect Street, Carrington Road and Whitehorse Road.

The Stonebridge Asia Practice expects the trend of Asian capital investment into Australia to continue, at least in the short-medium term, as investors across the world are placing a stronger emphasis on capital preservation over to higher risk returns. Major capital cities like Melbourne and Sydney are well placed to capture this interest, and Australia overall seen by many high net worth’s as one of the top 5 destinations to invest across the world.

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