According to the Foreign Investment Review Board’s annual report, the number of foreign investment proposals continued to grow strongly in 2014-15.There were 37,953 proposals that received foreign investment approval compared with 24,102 in 2013-14.

The real estate sector had a significant increase in approvals with 37,347 approvals in 2014-15, compared with 23,428 approvals in 2013-14 and is more than triple the levels of 2012-13. The majority of this increase related to new dwellings approvals. This is consistent with the Government’s policy to increase the housing stock by channelling foreign investment into new dwellings.

Australia is the most attractive destination for APAC real estate investors

Chinese interest to Australian real estate sector doubled since 2014.Chinese investments in Australian residential and commercial real estate increased to A$24.3 billion($18.4 billion) in the 12 months through June 2015,up from A$12.4 billion a year earlier and A$5.9 billion in 2013, according to the Foreign Investment Review Board’s annual report.

The top four overseas markets for Chinese property investors

Approvals in 2014-15 were given for $194.6 billion of proposed investment, a 16.3 per cent increase on 2013-14.

This increase was largely due to continuing growth in residential real estate applications. Proposed investment in residential real estate increased from $34.7 billion in 2013-14 to $60.8 billion in 2014-15. There was also $36.2 billion of proposed investment in the commercial real estate sector.

Source: https://firb.gov.au