Australia’s “depressed” real estate market is creating some serious Black Friday deals for foreign real estate investors from as far away as Singapore, HongKong, Tokyo and the UK,” reports Byron Rose, president of the Real Estate Buyers Association of Australia[1]. Much like the United States, Australia is viewed by foreign buyers as “a secure market overall,” and thanks to an oversupply of properties on the market right now (sound familiar?) real estate is moving at clearance rates. Foreign investors are heading down under to take advantage of the deals.
The president of the Real Estate Institute of Australia, David Airey, has announced that “listing numbers for agents are backing up due to this oversupply,” and “that the stockpile is huge [and] growing.” Airey said that the supply of houses on the market in Australia is 50 percent above normal at this time.
Many experts believe that foreign investing could be the key to the United States’ real estate market making it through the forecast onslaught that will occur when the 2.1 million-home inventory of “shadow homes” hits the market. Currently, most analysts believe that left to our own devices, the American market and American investors might take upwards of two years to absorb that “invisible” inventory alone. However, international investing activity seems to indicate that foreign investors are ready to snap up deals in markets that they view as ultimately “secure,” so perhaps the same group of international investors who are active in Australia will make the transatlantic leap to North America as well.
Do you think a more active international presence in any country’s real estate market is a good thing?
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[1] http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/85556/20101125/foreign-buyers-flock-to-australia-s-real-estate-market.htm
