Chinese buyers abandon Australia’s housing market, still get blame for rising prices

Right-wing figures blamed Chinese for stoking Australia’s 2015 housing boom. Six years on and foreign buyers have fallen 80 per cent, yet prices are even higher

Toxic geopolitics, media sensationalism, opportunistic politicians and plain old racism contribute to scapegoating, experts say

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Residential housing in Sydney. Home prices in Australia are booming again, despite a drop in the number of Chinese buyers. Photo: EPA

Published: 4:30am, 17 Jul 2021Updated: 5:22am, 17 Jul 2021

At an auction of a house in the affluent Sydney suburb of Chatswood in 2015, a group of protesters stunned prospective bidders when they turned up with placards decrying foreign homebuyers.

“Keep the Aussie dream alive,” the signs said. “We don’t want your dirty $$”.

Earlier that year, residents of another affluent Sydney suburb, Lane Cove, were shocked to find in their letterboxes fliers titled “Stop the Chinese Invasion” blaming Chinese property buyers for pushing up home prices while claiming they were “ethnically cleansing” Australian families from their suburbs.

The right-wing Party for Freedom’s chairman Nick Folkes claimed responsibility for the pamphlets, telling local media he was not racist and was targeting Chinese nationals not Australians of Chinese heritage. Later that year, he gave an interview saying Islam was not compatible with the Australian way of life.

Australia was then in the midst of one of its hottest housing booms in years. Between 2013 and 2018, Australia experienced both staggering house price rises and a new phenomenon, a surge in Chinese property investors as pent-up wealth from the mainland poured into investment opportunities overseas.

Then, the median price for a house in Sydney reached an eye-watering high of A$1 million (US$750,000) while in Melbourne, the second biggest Australian city, it reached nearly A$700,000.

That boom has since been superseded by a fresh one this year, bearing similar hallmarks including record-low interest rates and a shortage of houses.

Chinese buyers abandon Australia’s housing market, still get blame for rising prices

Right-wing figures blamed Chinese for stoking Australia’s 2015 housing boom. Six years on and foreign buyers have fallen 80 per cent, yet prices are even higher Toxic geopolitics, media sensationalism, opportunistic politicians and plain old racism contribute to scapegoating, experts say

Right-wing figures blamed Chinese for stoking Australia’s 2015 housing boom. Six years on and foreign buyers have fallen 80 per cent, yet prices are even higher

Toxic geopolitics, media sensationalism, opportunistic politicians and plain old racism contribute to scapegoating, experts say