HK, Singapore Named As Top Foreign Investors In Aussie Commercial Properties
AUSTRALIA – Hong Kong and Singapore emerged as the biggest offshore investors in Australian commercial real estate during the first half of the year, according to a recent CBRE report entitled “In and Out Australia H1 2022”.
The Chinese territory led by transaction volume, pumping in A$1.33 billion in Australian assets during the first six months of the year, up from about A$693 million in the same period in 2021.
Singapore came in at second place with nearly A$1.25 billion, but this is a far cry from the almost 4.5 billion recorded in H1 2021.
Finally, American investors were ranked 3rd after they spent A$496 billion in H1 2022, down from A$1.4 billion during the same period in the preceding year.
Tom Broderick, Research Head at CBRE, said Australia’s long-time appeal to Hong Kong investors had continued strongly.
“Since 2020, Australia has been the second most popular destination, behind only Mainland China, for Hong Kong outbound capital investing in commercial real estate,” he noted.
However, overseas commercial property investments in Australia by entities from Singapore, the US, and Canada all declined. Most of the decrease in volume was due to a bigger than normal amount of portfolio transactions in H1 2021. Considering this, CBRE stated in the report that the 2022 figures so far were on par with pre-COVID figures from 2018 and 2019.
Meanwhile, office assets were the most preferred offshore commercial property investment by Australia companies, with $1.4 billion spent on this asset class during the first six months of 2022. This trend is attributed to the opening of borders for many countries, including Australia.
The USA was the most popular overseas investment destination for Australia property investors, as they injected about A$700 million in office properties in that market during the first half of the year.
The second top destination for offshore office investments was Singapore (about A$600 million). The biggest deal in the Southeast Asian country was a partnership with Australia’s Lendlease with Singtel to redevelop its headquarters.
