Property investors from New Zealand are surging ahead in the Australian market as the Trans-Tasman bubble.
Realestate.com.au marked a 35% upswing in searches from Kiwi investors, a marked difference from the drop-offs that they saw in potential investors from the UK and United States.
New upscale developments in Sydney, such as Sirius and 111 Castlereagh, were popular, as well as the more traditional destinations such as South East Queensland and the Sunshine Coast.
Karen Dellow, an analyst at realestate.com.au, said that the Trans-Tasman bubble had given Kiwi investors a potential head start on the rest of the world.
“Australia has always been popular with New Zealand property seekers, primarily due to job opportunities and competitive wages,” said said. “With international borders closed for most of 2020, the trans-Tasman bubble between Australia and New Zealand this year has provided an opportunity for movement to resume between the two countries.
New developments like Sirius, in the shadow of the Harbour Bridge, is a good example of how the luxury market is taking off with foreign investors.
“The luxury market roared ahead in 2020 and has continued that upward trajectory so far in 2021,” said Dellow. “A combination of some industries powering ahead despite the pandemic and lower rates of job loss for high income earners coupled with record low interest rates and high savings saw many people upgrade homes.”
“Although international borders are shut, investors see this as short term. Luxury inner-city apartments with Sydney harbour views have long been popular with the business community and no doubt that is the case with Sirius.”
Unsurprisingly, Kiwi investors have been very active on the Gold Coast market – which is already the fastest growing in Eastern Australia.
“The Gold Coast has long been a favourite destination for New Zealand property seekers,” said Dellow. “With beautiful warm weather and pristine beaches, it’s easy to understand why.”
“The southern region of Brisbane and Gold Coast already has a high number of NZ residents and no doubt this is also a contributing factor with potential migrants being attracted to an area in which people they know already live.”
“Over the last few years, we’ve seen the Gold Coast rise in popularity with other overseas-based searchers and it’s hard to see this trend slowing any time soon.”
Lockdown appear not to stem demand at all, according to the realestate.com.au numbers.
“Looking at search activity on realestate.com.au throughout the pandemic, we actually saw increased interest in Australian property from both domestic and overseas property seekers,” said Dellow.
“In terms of the market more broadly, it really depends on the length of Sydney’s lockdown as to whether we will see much of an impact on property. If Melbourne’s lockdown is anything to go by, we’d expect a slight fall in activity before the market bounces back strongly.”
