Asian property buyers dominate Queensland market

Property buyers from Singapore, China and South Korea have become Queensland's biggest spenders this year after British investors, who have dominated the state’s property market for eight years, but declined last year.

Singaporean investors acquired A$213 million worth of commercial, residential and agricultural land, those from China poured in A$150million, and South Koreans spent A$217 million, according to the annual sales report from the Foreign Ownership of Land Register.

British investors declined to A$112 million last year from A$466 million in 2007 and 2008, but the land area acquired by British investors remains the largest in the state at 2.03 million hectares, nearly 50 percent of the total 4.44 million hectares held by foreign owners.

Investors from Singapore and Japan have been the biggest property buyers in Queensland since the 1990s, but the report showed that investments are coming from new Asian sources.

Chris Eves, professor of property economics at Queensland University of Technology, said further data was required to determine whether Queensland’s foreign investment was returning to the 1990s era of Asian dominance. He noted that the global economic crisis had thwarted many investments from New Zealand, the US and Britain.

“If you took out Southeast Asia, those new players coming in, foreign investment would have been dismal,” he said.

He added that British companies have continued to acquire rural agricultural land, while Singaporean and South Korean companies have been purchasing commercial properties.