Brisbane's suburbs with major Chinese presence show higher home price growth: PRDnationwide

Chinese buyers are pushing up property prices in Brisbane's suburbs that have a significant Chinese presence, according to new research by real estate firm PRDnationwide.

Brisbane suburbs with a large number of Chinese are experiencing higher property price growths relative to the average growth of the Brisbane South and Greater Brisbane areas, the data shows.

“In the past 5 years Robertson’s property price growth was over double the Greater Brisbane average,” said PRDnationwide national research manager Dr Diaswati Mardiasmo.

“A likely cause is the well documented tendency of the Chinese community to gather together,” said Dr Mardiasmo.

“The increasing number of Chinese buyers, including local, interstate, and overseas buyers has meant that there is a high level of demand for houses in these areas, pushing prices up.”

In 2014, the Financial Investments Review Board reported $12.4 billion in approvals for real estate from Chinese investors.

Seven suburbs, all located within Brisbane’s Southern area,  with an average Chinese population of 18.7 percent were found to have an average house price growth of 11.5 percent over the past 12 months, well above the average house price growth in Brisbane South and Greater Brisbane, at 5.9 percent and 4.4 percent respectively.

Mardiasmo said a large Chinese population could be taken as an indicator that a suburb would see high levels of price growth. 

The average house price growth in the suburbs surveyed over the past 5 years is 30.8 percent compared to Brisbane’s Southern area and Greater Brisbane, which sat at 22.8 percent and 18.5 percent respectively. 

“This trend seems to be relatively sustainable, as we have noted significant differences over both the short and median terms.”  

Growth also seems to be proportional to the Chinese population in an area.

Robertson, which has the highest percentage of Chinese residents at 25.3 percent, also experienced the highest property price growth, rising 38.6 percent in the last five years and 19.3 percent in the last year alone.

Eight Mile Plains had the lowest Chinese population surveyed at 11.8%. Its property price growth was 27.6% and 9.4% in the past five years and 12 months respectively.