Australia's biggest unlisted property funds delivered double digit returns last year, buoyed by a strong performance from office-focused funds such as the Investa Commercial Property Fund and the AMP Wholesale Office Fund.

Real estate in Aussie capitals is often labelled as the most expensive in the world and while sunny Sydney has a median house price of $850,000 - or about $1 million in the central suburbs - some of our other cities appear more tame when set against the international competition.

As a way to curb money laundering and keep track of the trail of money making its way into top U.S. real-estate markets, the Treasury will move to crack down on both all-cash purchases and those made through limited-liability companies or “other opaque structures,” the department said in a statement. The government will require title insurance companies, which are involved in nearly all real-estate transactions like this, to identify and report the names of buyers behind high-end purchases for the first time.