Chatswood is the second highest buyer destination of Chinese property investors in Sydney, although Juwai.com’s director Carrie Law says Chinese investors have been turning away from Sydney real estate.
The Golden Week of celebrations, a popular Chinese holiday when China-based buyers have traditionally visited Australia to purchase new housing en masse, proved quieter than normal.
“We still (saw) some transactions, but it’s not the free-for-all of past years,” Ms Law said.
The Sydney CBD has been the most popular area for Chinese buyers.
Chinese buyers made six per cent fewer inquiries than in the previous quarter and nine per cent fewer inquiries than over the same period last year, according to Juwai data.
The five most popular suburbs for China-based buyers over the past year were the Sydney CBD, Chatswood, Parramatta, Olympic Park and Edmondson Park.
The year before that, north shore suburb Castlecrag was the most popular, followed by the Sydney CBD, Marsden Park, Pyrmont and Ryde.
The Juwai data coincides with a new report that overall Chinese investment into Australia slumped 40 per cent last year, twice the drop worldwide, according the Australian National University, supported by Treasury and with input from the Reserve Bank of Australia.
The report shows Chinese commercial investment peaked in 2016 at $14.9 billion, before falling to $8.9 billion last year.
"This is an unusual drop in Chinese investment into Australia," the project's leader Peter Drysdale, who heads the Asian Bureau of Economic Research at ANU told The Australian Financial Review.
He noted the decrease was significantly larger than the 19.3 per cent fall in China's worldwide foreign direct investment.
The database shows $40.4 billion of Chinese money made its way into Australia over the past four years, via 262 transactions.
Last year, the mining sector still accounted for the biggest proportion, making up just over half of the total value of transactions. However, its share has fallen since 2014 as other sectors such as health care and financial technology are starting to attract interest from Chinese buyers.
"There has been a significant diversification of Chinese investment in Australia," said Professor Drysdale.
