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Wealthy Chinese investors are taking advantage of relaxed Australian foreign investor laws to buy property in Melbourne. Agents in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs have reported that many buyers are part-time residents from China, Hong Kong and other Asian countries like Taiwan. There is also an increase in Asian companies who buy property in Australia to accommodate their staff.
In 2008 a new record of 23,000 British migrated to sunnier shores in Australia. They turned their backs on the frosty weather, dreaming of a life under the sun. The life down under attracts expats with a promise of stunning vistas, some of the world’s best beaches, great surf, a lifestyle that is geared toward the outdoors and heaps of fun.
Monday, September 15th, 2008 
Posted by OP-Mall in Fiji Property, Property Reviews, South-Pacific Property
Malolo Ocean Club is a 5-star luxury boutique resort located on the southern most peninsula of the stunning Malolo Island in Fiji. The scenery is breath taking with tropical, azure waters, white sandy beaches that are protected by coral reefs and views across to the stunning Musket Cove.
Friday, May 23rd, 2008 Posted by OP-Mall in Australian Property, International Real Estate Trends, Trends
The Gold Coast of Australia has long been known for its great surf, beaches and eternal warm sunny weather. Backpackers from far and wide have always made the Gold Coast their second home from home for many years.
It has become some kind of cult to travel to Australia and visit the Gold Coast. The Japanese have also seen the value of this bustling and trendy place, so much so that many shops and businesses along the coast are owned by the Japanese.
But the newest breed of investors came quietly, albeit forceful. The Russians. Cashed up from industries such as oil and mining, the Russians are now grabbing the many multi-million dollar waterfront investments along the Gold Coast.
It seems the latest hot property commodity is handled Down Under on Australia’s Sunshine Coast. With plenty of sun, gorgeous beaches and a trendy lifestyle as well as very affordable prices for those coming from the UK, it is no wonder that there seems to be a mass exodus. Ok, maybe not mass, but we are sure you get the picture.
With this years Formula 1 Grand Prix hotting up after just two races, we decided to feature special Formula 1 theme posts to bring some of the action to you. With every race we will feature some local information about real estate in the area so that you too can be a racy investor.
Melbourne, Australia offered a great start to the season on 16.March and only 8 of the 22 drivers managed to finish the race. The guys on the podium were:
Brisbane’s brisk lifestyle
Australians are beginning to feel the pinch as cracks begin to appear in their real estate market. In a recent report on Australian news website, thedaily.com.au, real estate agents in Queensland’s Sunshine Coast are gearing themselves for a property price drop by as much as 30% in the next 18 months.
Well they are numerous reasons that have been largely linked to rising interest rates, soaring petrol prices and the recent stock market crash.
Thursday, December 20th, 2007 Posted by Overseas Property Mall in Billionaire Homes, Fiji Property, New Zealand Property, Waterfront Property
Fancy your own private island in Fiji? Now’s your chance. New Zealand estate agents, Bayleys Realty Group have three to choose from – all at less than £3 million each. Two of the Islands are in Fiji, the third in Marlborough sounds, NZ. Toberua Island sits two kilometres east of Fiji’s main island of Viti Levu, comes with 1.62ha of land and a 15-bure resort operation that has attracted a number of celebrity visitors recently. The island, with resort, is for sale for $3.9 million plus 12.5 per cent Fijian value added tax.
Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 Posted by Overseas Property Mall in Australian Property, Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT)Australia has one of the oldest established REITs frameworks in the world, dating from the early 1970s. In Australia they are known as LPTs (Listed Property Trusts). LPTs come in two forms, firstly, the pure real estate portfolio investments and, secondly, so-called ‘stapled securities’ which would in this instance tie up the direct property investments with investment in a fund manager and/or a property development company. Stapled securities could be seen as an attempt to overcome the country’s relative shortage of potential real estate investments (see below) by diluting the pure real estate LPTs portfolios. The most distinctive feature of Australian LPTs is the investor’s ability to postpone paying tax on part of the income stream from their LPT investment. Typically, the untaxed element of the dividend would be applied to the capital gains tax calculation with the effect of creating a notional (lower) LPT purchase price so that the CGT bill is higher when the investor comes to sell their LPT. It seems that the flexibility in terms of target investments and in paying tax on one’s investment adds up to a more versatile type of investment instrument than the new regimes in Germany and the UK allow for. As in other countries, Australian LPTs are required to distribute to all of their income.
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Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 Posted by Overseas Property Mall in Australian Property, International Real Estate Trends, Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), United States PropertyIn our forthcoming piece on Australian REITs we shall be looking at the key role played by the country’s pension funds in property investment. Unlike UK staff superannuation sector where pensions seem to be on track for death by a thousand cuts, Australia pension funds are riding high on the back of an increase in statutory contribution levels in 2002. The result is that Australia has a lot of investable cash looking for good returns and given the limited size of the country’s real estate market, it is not surprising that a lot of this money is going overseas.
The figures are impressive with US$ 7.7bn invested in US property so far this year. This compares to a total of $ 5.5bn invested by Australia in US real estate in the whole of 2006 and gives Australia some 43% of total inward investment into US real estate for 2007 to-date. The reasons that the US is so much in favour are, according to Mark Baillie of Macquarie Bank, a liquid market, good governance and a relatively benign tax regime when it comes to repatriating profits and income.
