Australia has the hottest Asia-Pac property market in the G20
Australia ranks only behind Turkey, UK and Brazil in the league of property price growth in the G20 nations. Figures from Knight Frank show that only the top 4 had price growth in double figures in the 12 months to June 2014. Australia’s prices grew by 10.1 per cent with Brazil on 10.8, UK on 11.6 and Turkey topping the list with a whopping 14 per cent increase. Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region, China’s prices grew by 4.3 per cent and Indonesia 7.4 per cent but Japan saw a decline in growth of 1.1 per cent. Knight Frank says that the overall trend is that growth is slowing across the G20 and the gap between the strongest and weakest markets expanding.
 
Chinese investment backlash based on racism says online realtor
The owner of China’s biggest online property portal says that the backlash against Chinese investors buying property in Australia is not based on data but could be racism. Speaking to The Australian Andrew Taylor of Shanghai’s juwai.com says that there was not the same level of animosity when Canadian, American and British buyers were spending even larger sums on Australian real estate. Mr Taylor also says that local investors are buying up more property than overseas ones and that is having the same or greater impact on the market. He also believes that reports of illegal transfers of money from China being used for property are overstated.
 
Investment rental market starting to decline
New data suggests that returns on rental property to investors are beginning to slow down. RP Data’s NAB Australian Housing Market Report shows that outside of Sydney, Hobart and Melbourne rental growth has not kept up with inflation. In Perth and Canberra rents are falling. The report notes that although first-time buyers may be struggling to get on the property ladder, there is an oversupply of rental properties allowing them an affordable alternative. The data shows that yields from investment rental property have fallen in the capitals by around 0.2 per cent in the year to September. Sydney and Melbourne now have the lowest yields with 3.4 and 3.8 per cent yields respectively while Newman in WA came in top with 14.4 per cent.
 

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