Local buyers follow the Chinese treasure hunt in Sydney Property Market

Local Australians are increasingly following the Chinese lead in apartment-buying decisions.

Coming from a much longer tradition of living in high-density cities, apartment buyers with some kind of Chinese heritage usually opt to buy close to transport hubs, shops and restaurants.

''They're good buyers to follow because they have a checklist of what they want, and they take emotion out of their purchasing decisions,'' says the chief executive of development in NSW and Victoria for Mirvac, John Carfi.

Mirvac's new 37-level Chatswood tower ERA, the fifth tower in the Pacific Place complex, has a high proportion of Chinese buyers.

''Fundamentally, they are savvy buyers and particularly good at buying off the plan, probably because they're better educated when it comes to real estate as they're accustomed to apartment living, and most in China and Asia are sold off the plan,'' Carfi says.

''Their criteria for buying - well located, in good transport nodes and well serviced by amenities - are excellent, and good feng shui in facing north-east makes perfect sense, too.''

To the north-west, Top Ryde City Living, the $500 million five-tower complex atop the newly built shopping centre, is also popular among Chinese buyers, who may be Australian-born or come from mainland China or Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia or Indonesia.

''The primary reason is that there's a certain aspirational quality that comes from where you live as well as the general lifestyle attributes,'' says the director of sales and marketing with developer Crown International, Haig Conolly. ''Buyers who have some Chinese heritage like to live in developments with facilities like public transport, five-star restaurants, top-class shopping malls and employment close, and increasingly Anglo-Australians are moving the same way, with the traditional quarter-acre block no longer holding the same appeal it once had.''

When Hong Kong-born Chris Ma saw the plans to convert the fifth and final tower of ERA at Pacific Place in Chatswood from commercial to residential, he liked the look of it so much, he bought three apartments.

He set aside an $815,000 two-bedroom apartment off the plan for his eldest son, intends to rent out the $642,000 one-bedder, and the third, a three-bedder bought for $1.07 million, is pencilled in to be sold on completion for a profit, he says.

''I think that'll sell for $1.38 million,'' says Ma, 60, a father of two who makes a living from property transactions. ''I like to invest in Mirvac properties.

''My friend lived in a Mirvac house once and, after 20 years, he phoned them up and said there was a problem. They came and fixed it. It was magical.''

Ma settled in Australia in 1989 and says that of the ERA buyers who are of Chinese heritage, 92 per cent have permanent residence or citizenship, with the rest living overseas.

''Australia has a good, stable economy to invest in, has better weather than Canada … and this is a very good development,'' he says.

''I have lunch in a Chinese restaurant every day opposite the site to watch what the workmen are doing. And they are doing a very good job.''

Antony Fung

Ashfield Real Estate

www.ashfield-realestate.com.au

1300 938 931