Australia is the top destination for property investors in Singapore as its millionaires look for someone to retire or send their children to study.
The city-state nation of six million people is also Australia’s No.1 source of foreign investment on a per capita basis accounting for population – although the Chinese buy the most Australian property.
Juwai IQI, which markets property to wealthy investors in Asia, found that Australia topped the list for Singaporeans making inquiries between January 2020 and November 2023.
The group’s founder and CEO Kashif Ansari said Singaporeans were particularly interested in Australia because many were considering either moving there or enrolling their children in an Australian university.
Australia is the top destination for real estate investors in Singapore as its millionaires look for somewhere to retire or send their children to study (pictured is Marina Bay Sands in Singapore)
“When Singaporean investors buy property overseas, they are usually looking to diversify their investments, take advantage of Singapore’s strong dollar, avoid higher transaction costs at home, provide accommodation for their children studying abroad or get a second home for retirement and holiday, he said.
Singaporeans accounted for 27.5 per cent of foreign inquiries to buy property in Australia, ahead of Thailand’s 16.5 per cent and Malaysia’s 13.2 per cent, with potential Chinese buyers not in Juwai IQI’s top ten list of countries.
But China remains Australia’s No.1 origin for foreign property buyers, with the Chinese buying $3.4 billion worth of property assets in Australia in 2022-2023, Treasury figures showed.
Singapore was equally fourth on the list with transactions worth $300 million in line with India and Taiwan, but behind Hong Kong ($600 million), Vietnam ($400 million).
But Singapore’s investment in Australia is the highest per population with a population of 5.92 million marginally more than Sydney’s 5.3 million – and well below China’s 1.4 billion.
“Although the total international investment in residential property from Singapore does not compare to the total investment from China, it is still far higher than any other country per capita,” Ansari said.
Juwai IQI founder and CEO Kashif Ansari said Singaporeans were particularly interested in Australia because many were considering either moving there or enrolling their children in an Australian university.
Singapore is also home to 240,100 millionaires and 27 billionaires – making it the world’s seventh-richest city for high-net-worth individuals, London-based immigration consultancy Henley and Partners found.
“There are several reasons why Singapore is one of the world’s largest buyers of international real estate, but at the bottom of them all is a cultural preference for property investment and an abundance of capital,” Ansari said.
‘Singapore is a small country with a limited domestic market, high levels of wealth and an international outlook.’
Foreigners are only allowed to buy an established property in Australia – or anything that is not a new build – if they are residents and can prove they live, work or study locally.
But foreigners who do not live in Australia are only allowed to buy something that is brand new, in a bid to encourage more housing developers to increase the supply of homes.
Permanent residents are treated differently from foreigners and do not need approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board to purchase a new or established property or block of land.
Education is Australia’s fourth largest export after coal, iron ore and natural gas and is worth $26.6 billion a year (pictured are students outside the University of New South Wales)
Education is Australia’s fourth-largest export after coal, iron ore and natural gas, worth $26.6 billion in 2022, Foreign Affairs and Trade data showed.
This has led to a large influx of immigration, with 125,410 permanent and long-term arrivals in January alone, with that figure including international students because they stay for more than a year.
On a net basis, with departures factored in, the figure of 55,330 for January was 40 per cent higher than the previous monthly record of 39,460 set in 2009, Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Thursday showed.