China's private sector looks for property upside Down Under
Chinese investment in Australian commercial real estate more than tripled last year as a moribund market at home sent the private sector offshore in search of opportunity, a study shows. And for the first time, investment in Australia by China's private players outstripped that by state-owned enterprises last year, according to the study by global accounting firm KPMG and the University of Sydney's China Studies Centre.
Investors are pouring cash into the property sector with hotels, development land and residential conversions worth more than $500 million changing hands in the past week. In the largest deal, a joint venture between Singapore developer Far East Land and Housing Development Company Pty/Ltd and the Hong Kong-based Sino Land Company Limited, has entered into an agreement to acquire The Westin Sydney and its adjoining Heritage Retail podium for $445.3 million.
LJ Hooker Home Loans has made a cut of 35 basis points to its white-label product. The Leveredge product now starts from 4.29 per cent for owner-occupiers, down from 4.64 per cent.
The property market in Melbourne and Sydney has remained red hot despite warnings of a bubble and talk of investor lending curbs. Melbourne’s auction clearance rate rose to 82 per cent from last weekend’s 77 per cent and 71 per cent this time last year.
Extra $18b capital at Westpac, CBA, NAB, ANZ may curb house prices, S&P says
The big banks will have to raise $18 billion of new capital if the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority implements a key recommendation of the financial system inquiry, ratings agency Standard & Poor's says, a move that could curb the rate of growth in home lending and reduce pressure on house prices.
They are the suburbs where everyone wants to buy. In some cases hundreds or even thousands of properties have changed hands in the past year. From inner-city apartment markets and coastal hot spots to big regional towns, while the property types may differ vastly the one thing these suburbs and towns have in common is big transaction levels.