Investment News

Our economic growth may be sluggish, inflation low and retail trade in recession, but compared to the rest of the world we are looking like an economic and political dream.

Southeast Asian and Chinese buyers remain the biggest investors in Australian residential real estate despite tough, ongoing government restrictions on foreign ownership.

Melbourne has locked in its status as a prime international investment destination with its central business district recording the greatest yield compression over the past three years across CBD office markets globally, real estate group Savills said.

The love affair with real estate is ingrained into the Australian psyche. You can touch it, see it, drive past it and improve it. But with home prices falling, policy questions over tax incentives and less availability of credit, perhaps the love affair with residential property investment is over. So what does this mean for commercial real estate?

French giant AXA Investment Managers-Real Assets has forged into the local hotel market, buying a four-strong portfolio in Sydney and Canberra for $330.4 million.

Global mountain resort operator, the US-listed Vail Resorts, will control the bulk of Australia’s ski fields after purchasing Victoria’s Falls Creek and Mount Hotham ski resorts in a $174 million deal.

International property groups are positioning to take stakes in the $2.5 billion Healthscope real estate empire with Canada’s NorthWest Healthcare Properties raising funds to back its purchase and investors tipping New Zealand’s Vital Healthcare Property Trust may follow suit if it can make a deal stack up.

Melbourne is locking in its status as a global investment destination for property investors, with Hong Kong group Foo Hang Jewellery finalising a deal to buy a Collins St tower for $314 million, its first move into Australia.

Singaporean group ARA Asset Management is looking to put its mark on Sydney’s commercial property market early this year with the purchase of a $300 million office project in the harbourfront suburb of Pyrmont.