When it comes to foreign buyers, in the last 30 years, China has transformed itself into one of the world’s leaders in political, economic and social relations. With Australia a hotspot for Chinese immigrants, understanding the cultural nuances, both from an Australian and Chinese perspective, is more important than ever. In his book, The New Chinese, author Barry Li (pronounced Lee) gives us an insight into how Chinese buyers think, what is important to them and how they are reacting to the discussions we are having about their influence on the Aussie market. We talk to Barry about his findings.
Transcript:
Kevin: In the last 30 years, China has transformed itself into one of the world’s leaders in political, economic, and social relations. With Australia a hotspot for Chinese immigrants, understanding the cultural nuances – both from an Australian and Chinese perspective – is more important than ever.
In his book The New Chinese, author Barry Li has written an essential guide on the history, culture, and mindset of Chinese migrants in Australia. He joins me to talk about the book and the influences on Australia of having Chinese investors.
Barry, thank you very much for your time.
Barry: Thank you, Kevin, for having me. It’s a pleasure.
Kevin: That’s okay. Barry, how do Chinese buyers feel about how we discuss their buying Aussie property impacts on our prices?
Barry: Well, to answer that, Kevin, I need to divide the Chinese into two groups. One is the group who works here and lives here, permanent residents like myself. We make Australian salaries, so it’s as difficult for us to compete with overseas buyers as any Australian. We would feel the comment is unfair, but we totally understand why – because typical Australians can’t tell the difference.
For the second group, the Chinese from overseas, they don’t care about these comments. These comments won’t stop them from buying, because they don’t read our media or our social media.
They only look at things from Weibo and WeChat, which are largely controlled by property developers, and there’s probably only positive news about investing in Australia, which is the reason they buy here. So, that’s the situation.
Kevin: It’s a very interesting point you make, Barry, about when we look at buyers and we someone who’s obviously from Chinese descent, we naturally think that they’re foreign buyers when, in fact, as you just pointed out, a lot of them are in fact Australian citizens.
Barry: Yes. Let me tell you an interesting thing. When I bought my first property with my wife, we went to the inspection, and the thing I said to my wife is “Wow, I think I’m going to get this one, because there’s no other Chinese here.” I’m as worried of Chinese buyers as any Australians here.
Kevin: That’s a great story. Are you sensing that Chinese buyers are put off by regulations introduced to slow down Chinese investment? I think you already discussed that and said that you didn’t think that that’s impacting overseas buyers.
Barry: Yes. Personally, I believe the regulations already [2:26 inaudible] wouldn’t stop them, because to them, it’s still the same calculation that it’s better to buy property in Australia than in Beijing or Shanghai.
What’s really going to stop them is the enhanced foreign currency controls by Chinese government since the 1st of July. I think from the 1st of September, they are hyping it up that any transaction with UnionPay card – which is a Chinese payment card – over 1000 yuan will be reported to the central government’s bank.
They are trying to close every loophole to transfer money illegally from China to Australia, which would impact the settlement of properties bought earlier, as well. This has more use for controlling investment, rather than our regulations. That’s my personal opinion.
Kevin: That’s interesting that that impact might actually come from the other end, as opposed to from Australia.
