For the year ended June 30, 2017, Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board approved A$15.25 billion in real estate investments from China, allowing it to retain its title as the top foreign property investor in the country, but a far cry from the A$31.91 billion approved in the year-ago period.
Canada, the U.S., Singapore and Malaysia round out the top five foreign investors in Australian real estate, with respective approvals of A$7.25 billion, A$6.81 billion, about A$5.30 billion and A$3.49 billion.
Overall, investments in Australian real estate during the period came to A$68.98 billion, more than halved from A$122.11 billion in the 2015-16 period.
In the commercial real estate sector, approval for foreign investments in Australia reached A$43.7 billion in the reporting period, down from A$49.7 billion. The decrease was attributed mainly to "a significant" decline in approvals for existing commercial property, which dropped to A$32.1 billion from A$43.9 billion in the comparable period, and in part due to more investors using exemption certificates for commercial property buys.
On the residential side, the government agency approved A$25.2 billion in developed and for-development residential properties from offshore investors in the period, down from A$72.4 billion in the prior period. Acknowledging the slowdown, the board said the decline is attributable to investors' reaction to application fees introduced in 2015 and reflects weakened underlying foreign demand. It also identified stricter lending rules for foreigners and capital controls in China as other factors for the decline in foreign investments in the asset class.
