With the current COVID-19 lockdown or partial lockdowns or even the slowly reopening, what happens if the buyers are super-wealthy ones? Where an extra property in Sydney and Melbourne is well, just an extra holiday home in another country? Both Sydney and Melbourne are property destination for many wealthy people from the region. (Yes, I consider Australia to be closer to ASIA than Europe or the U.S.) I just hope they think the same because we should think of how ASIA + Australia can prosper TOGETHER, yeah.
Article in straitstimes.com . Wealthy buyers from China are buying top-end housing in anticipation of inflation and a weakening yuan. Monika Ty, founder of Black Diamondz, an Australian company that caters to Chinese buyers of luxury real estate said, “It’s been flat-out.” Since March, Tu has sold A$85 million (RM244 million) of prime property with about half the sales to Chinese clients who were in Australia when the pandemic hit. The homes were priced between A$7.25 million (RM20.80 million) and A$19.5 million (RM55.9 million), are all in Sydney’s well-heeled, ocean-front suburbs such as Point Piper.
Meanwhile in Singapore, though partial lockdown is still in place, three Chinese clients bought 6 apartments worth a combined $20 million at Marina One Residences this month without any virtual tours. This was revealed by Clarence Foo, a property agent with APAC Realty Ltd.’s unit ERA. Christine Sun, the head of research and consultancy at OrangeTee & Tie in Singapore said, “Some buyers may want to divert their funds to other countries as the yuan may be devalued further to combat the weakening of their economy.” Please do refer here for the full and comprehensive article: Article in straitstimes.com .
Sometimes we look at such decisions and we wonder if the right decision could be made without actual viewing has taken place. It may depend on 3 considerations. First one is that this purchase is unlikely to bankrupt the buyer. In other words, buying this may just be using their spare money instead of over-stretching themselves with home loans. Second one is that these buyers are experienced ones and may already understood the Australian / Singaporean market earlier and this is not the first time they come across the property market. Third is that they already are served by very experienced real estate agencies which would have served them or their friends prior to this. Thus the trusting relationship has been built earlier too.
Do not envy them too much yeah. These wealthy buyers are not even within the usual households within the top-20 percentile in any country. Learn from them that investment still happens even if there’s a crisis. Learn from them how to look at investments on a longer term that buy now and sell tomorrow kind of mentality. Last but not least, think of property as something which even the super-wealthy would buy as a hedge against fluctuations in the market. Happy understanding.
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