The Property Fair at the RE/MAX Asia Pacific Convention I recently attended in Bangkok allowed property specialists from Australia and New Zealand to showcase projects including apartments, residential developments and land releases alongside properties from across the Asia Pacific region.

It was made very obvious that there were a lot of investors in the region who are keen on investing in Australia and New Zealand.

This is despite the new foreign buyer taxes being implemented in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

The word is that most Chinese buyers, in particular, have taken these new foreign buyer taxes in their stride and factored them into their investment activity. The RBA’s actions are doing nothing to dissuade them from seeing Australia as an ideal investment destination. The volume of Chinese tourists in Australia is also tipped to increase, and many who fall in love with Australia may well become property investors.

Many Asian families are very keen to have their children study here and the new Guardian visa announced recently, which allows overseas students aged six and above, along with their guardians, to apply for visas regardless of their country of origin is likely to further boost investor interest.

What may happen is that the other Australian states benefit from the introduction of these taxes as the investors look elsewhere in this country to put their dollars, so avoiding the taxes, red tape and generally higher prices while still getting what attracts them – lifestyle and opportunities.

Education, emigration, investment, and lifestyle and travel are the major overseas property investment triggers for the Asian market.

Australia and New Zealand are seen as safe and secure destinations. Australia and New Zealand are geographically closer to China, closer in times zones and easier to visit. The Chinese population is becoming wealthier. These are three very important facts for the Australian and New Zealand real estate industries to take on board.

The RE/MAX Asia Pacific region currently involves Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Guam, Korea, China, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Malaysia and Myanmar, but the enormous RE/MAX’s global footprint brings a presence in more than 100 countries and territories.

The convention was truly an eye-opener to how much investor money is heading to Australia and New Zealand, and not just from Asia.

See also:

Treasurer orders foreign buyers to sell another 16 properties

Britain is Australia's largest foreign landowner

Foreign buyers cooling towards Aussie property