Vietnam floods Australia with a new wave of capital

The recent sale of the Sirius building in Sydney for $150 million to a developer with reported links to Vietnam has marked a new wave of capital from Asia hitting the Australian property market. Whilst investment from Mainland China has slowed down in recent years, over $450 million has been invested in Australian property from overseas Vietnamese investors over the past two years, according to Colliers International.
“Vietnam has been a major new entrant to the Australian market the past twenty-four months, with Colliers International transacting over $150 million of Vietnamese capital during this time across office, retail and development sites,” said Harry Bui, National Director, Asia Markets.
“This influx of capital comes due to the implemented ‘Significant Investor Visa’ which allows high net worth individuals to invest in property, government bonds and startup business at any price point between $500,000 - $15 million. Since this visa has been actioned Vietnamese visa submissions have increased by 177%.”
“Throughout the 2019 Australian Investment Showcase, Colliers met with several prominent Vietnamese groups who already invest in Australia and were keen to continue to do so, including Liberty Corporations, Vingroup, Greenland Vietnam, Saigontel and TNR Holdings. The team also met with groups in Singapore and Hong Kong who continue to have a strong interest in the country.”
Mr Bui said that initially these buyers were looking at Sydney and Melbourne, but as their confidence in the Australian market has grown, they have begun to turn their interest towards other major cities such as Brisbane and have even expanded out into the metro and suburban markets.
“Australia is expected to remain the best performing economy in the world with almost 28 years of uninterrupted growth and the Australian property market offers an attractive proposition to Asian-based investors pushing for global expansion and capital preservation,” said Alex Pham, Director, Research at Colliers International.
“Over the coming years, as the emerging economies of Asia begin to open to the global capital market, we believe more and more capital will start to flow in from those markets in addition to the traditionally strong presence of the more developed markets of Asia.”
Singapore, China and Hong Kong continue to lead the pack when it comes to Asian investment in Australia, holding 46%, 30.5% and 13.2% of market share respectively.
A recent and significant Vietnamese purchase was three of CPC’s northern cattle stations, sold for $135 million in January 2019.