Foreign investment in Australian commercial property is at its highest level since 1994, according to a new report from a leading property firm. Jones Lang LaSalle has found that foreign investment is helping the Australian commercial property market to recover with increasing levels of capital available for property investment in the country.
Offshore investment helping property in Australia
The report from Jones Lang LaSalle, entitled Values, Vacancies and Transaction Volumes – A Checklist of Real Estate Trends for 2011, said the Australian property market would be driven over the next two years by five short-term trends.
These were rising capital values, increasing sales, offshore investment, accelerating rental growth and a continued thawing of capital markets.
The author of the report, David Rees, JLL’s head of research and consulting in Australasia, said that offshore investors accounted for 19.9 per cent of commercial transactions (office, industrial and retail) in Australia in 2010 – the highest proportion since 1994.
Australia the fifth best country for capital growth in 2011
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that ââ¬ËDr Rees said the latest annual survey by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate ranked Australia fifth – behind the US, China, Britain and Brazil – as the country offering the best chance of capital appreciation this year.ââ¬â¢
In addition, the 2010 Jones Lang LaSalle transparency index survey ranked Australia as number one globally.
Dr Rees continued: “Since 2008, Australians have been divesting offshore and repatriating capital while foreign investors have continued to be net buyers in the Australian market. The net balance of Australians selling assets offshore and foreign investors bringing capital in was $2 billion in 2008, $3.4 billion in 2009 and $4.2 billion in 2010.”
