Login
iscover
Brendan Wong
The surge in Asian investors in Australia is not a short-term fad and the real estate industry needs to learn to harness this huge interest in local property, according one major network CEO.
Managing director of RE/MAX Australia and RE/MAX New Zealand Michael Davoren said figures were showing that in Australia alone one in six new property sales was to a buyer from Asia.
He said to maximise the opportunities Asian buyers posed, the market needed to first understand their needs.
“It’s a whole different thing if they’re trying to buy properties for their kids to live in while they’re going to university or whether they’re wanting to come over to buy a business or whether they’re going to be residents or not,” he told Real Estate Business.
“Until such a time that you go over there and talk to them it’s very difficult to really get a good handle on all of that.
“It’s also about how to make the deal easy for them. That includes everything from financing right through to having lawyers that understand it, translation, migration services. There’s a host of different services that need to be put together and if the market is serious about it then they’re the things they’re going to have to be to bundle into one package.
Mr Davoren said the franchise group targeted Asian buyers through its RE/MAX Global website that fed through properties from various countries in over 35 languages and over 30 currencies.
“It’s important that people are comfortable looking at properties in languages that they’re comfortable with.”
Mr Davoren recently attended the inaugural RE/MAX Asia-Pacific Rim Summit hosted by the China region and held in Hong Kong.
Nine countries were represented including Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Guam, Korea, China, Japan, and, of course, Australia and New Zealand.
The summit focused on how the franchise could harness the growing power of the real estate market that flowed between the countries in the Asia-Pacific Rim.
Mr Davoren said an aim of the summit had been to build relationships between the regional managers to facilitate business across the various regions.
“Our strategies include creating forums where our Australian agents can meet their Asian counterparts. They will not only introduce buyers but also recommend the best portals and other marketing strategies.”
Newsletter
