Open Borders Set To Shake Up Property Market

AUSTRALIA’S borders are finally open and the property market is ready for an influx of overseas buyers.

Nearly 60 international flights have touched down in Australia during the first 24 hours of open international borders. Travellers are coming from across the globe, including the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Singapore and Japan.

Overseas and expat buyer numbers dwindled over the past two years and less than two per cent of all auction buyers since the beginning of this year have been from overseas. Now that the borders are open to expats and foreign buyers, that number is expected to increase.

It’s not just interstate buyers flooding into Queensland, overseas buyers have already shown a large amount of interest in the sunshine state. According to principal Matt Lancashire at last Saturday’s Ray White New Farm auction event, overseas buyers have been chomping at the bit to get into the Queensland housing market.

“The market in the area has been super strong. We’ve got a huge amount of interstate and overseas interest from expats,” Mr Lancashire said.

“The continuation from expats coming home from Singapore and Hong Kong has been really strong, as well as our Sydney and Melbourne buyers migrating north.

“The trend is continuing if not even stronger than last year, there’s no sign of slowing down at all.”

At the same event, Ray White New Farm agent Josh Brown said buyer interest came from Thailand, Sydney, Melbourne and locally on his 36 Carroll St, Bardon listing. The property was sold under the hammer for $3.1 million – $200,000 above reserve.

“We’re getting used to overseas, and interstate unseen bidders, especially for nice properties like this,” Mr Brown said.

“We’re seeing a lot of interest in high quality architectural homes. Anything that comes to market that’s a finished product is a guaranteed sale.”

Moving to this week’s auctions, the Ray White Group has 757 properties (64 per cent more than last year) scheduled to sell under the hammer, with 382 of those booked for Saturday.

Ray White offices in Sydney continue to have the most auctions of any capital city with 206 this week, after Melbourne overtook them briefly earlier in the year. Ray White Melbourne has a close 194 auctions scheduled while Brisbane Ray White agents have booked 102. Ray White Adelaide has a further 58 auctions booked and Ray White on the Gold Coast has another 60 auctions.