Chinese Buyers Buy More Posh Melbourne Property
Buyers advocate Morrell & Koren said several Melbourne trophy homes have been snapped up in recent weeks by purchasers who are now seeking Foreign Investment Review Board approval, to formalise these transactions.
The biggest sale has been a mansion in Struan Avenue Toorak which sold off-market about four weeks ago, for a bullish $8 million.
Another mansion in tree-lined Maple Grove Toorak sold for $6.5 million, while in Brighton, 49 South Street sold this week for about $4.25 million, both to China-based purchasers.
There have been further examples of sales in Brighton and Canterbury, and increased demand across all of Melbourne’s prestige suburbs, Morrell & Koren director David Morrell said.
Revised FIRB policy gives greater scope for temporary residents to purchase established homes in Australia.
There is also, now, no limit to the number of established dwellings a foreign owned company can buy to house its Australian employees, Mr Morrell said, while foreign students who live in Australia are no longer subject to a $300,000 cap on the value of their established dwellings.
The FIRB changes, first announced late last year, spread to the apartment sector too, with internationally-based investors now able to buy 100% of apartments within a new project, as opposed to 50 per cent previously.
A FIRB representative was not available to provide statistics of any recent trend.
