Agents are reporting that they are receiving more hits for million-dollar properties on Chinese listings portal Juwai.com rather than on realestate.com.au.
Sales executive at McGrath Estate Neutral Bay Nigel Mukhi has enjoyed success with Chinese buyers since he started listing properties on Juwai.com in October last year.
“There’s definitely more Asian enquiries and most of our campaigns are now geared towards the Chinese market through online and print advertising,” he told Real Estate Business.
Mr Mukhi recently sold two blocks of land on Arbutus Street in Mosman for $6.55 million to a mainland Chinese buyer.
The buyer had seen it listed online and asked a Chinese friend in Sydney to check it out for him before flying to the city to personally inspect it. The listing received 2,456 views on realestate.com.au compared to 3,457 on Juwai.com.
Managing director of Gold Coast-based agency Corbett & Co Dominique Corbett has also seen a higher proportion of listing views on the Chinese website.
“If you’ve got 3,600 in a month here, you’re talking 10-fold - 36,000 to 44,000 - in a month for one property,” she said. “It’s quite outstanding what it can get up to.”
“A majority of my clients here in the prestige area just feel that it’s a very good market to be doing their advertising.”
She added that a majority of her wealthy clients did not want to advertise on realestate.com.au.
“They just want it done privately and subtly. They’re quite happy to sit and move forward gently and see how the market finds them,” she said.
Ms Corbett said while local buyers were still dominating her market at the moment, she predicted it would change when the number of Chinese buyers increased.
“I think it will lock a lot of people out of the market and if they haven’t bought very soon up here, they will probably never be able to get in at the levels that you can get in at the moment,” she said.
The high proportion of listing viewings from Juwai.com show the continual growth of demand for Australian properties from Chinese buyers. CEO of Juwai.com Andrew Taylor recently explained that this was being driven by a stable housing market.
"Chinese buyers seek out Aussie property because of Australia's stable housing market, regulatory protection and the fact that its time zone is very close,” he said.
“Recent initiatives such as the Significant Investment Visa have had an impact on cementing Australia as a preferred property investment destination, and the impending convertible currency deal - where the AUD and RMB convert directly - will nurture Chinese buyer interest into the future."
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