Why Asian buyers are set to snap up even more Australian homes: 'Prices are going up'

Daily Mail​

15-05-2025

Real estate tycoon Harry Triguboff has claimed Donald Trump 's tariff war will send a flood of Asian property buyers to Australia, placing further strain on the market.
Mr Triguboff - raised in south Beijing 's Russian community - moved to Australia in his youth and founded Meriton in 1968, which has become one of Australia's biggest apartment builders operating across NSW, Queensland, the ACT and Victoria.
The rich lister, worth an estimated $26billion, said Australia is looking more enticing to foreigners who were wanting to purchase property offshore in Western countries.
'I think that, because of the tariffs that Trump puts on goods entering America, prices are going up, sending us more Asian buyers,' Mr Triguboff told The Australian.
The US president slapped tariffs on more than 50 countries earlier this year, not long after he settled into the White House for his second term, which according to a CNN report from earlier this week has caused prices for everyday items to soar.
Power tools, mattresses and baby gear were just some of the goods that have surged as companies that import stock or materials try to stay afloat amid the minimum 10 per cent tariff increases.
Trump particularly targeted China in his trade war by raising the baseline tariff on its goods to 145 per cent.
It was intended to be a protectionist measure for domestic American manufacturing, but China retaliated with 125 per cent tariffs of its own and limited rare metals shipped to the US, needed for tech industries.
Following a US stock market plunge, Trump said he was prepared to negotiate with China. The talks concluded earlier this week with both sides tentatively agreeing to bring their additional tariff levels down to 10 per cent.
Triguboff said foreigners wanting to buy here should be encouraged and he wants the newly elected Albanese government to reaffirm its commitment to a house building boom to ensure the supply is there.
'I hope that Mr Albanese will agree with us that we need more and more houses and more and more people. Because the country is very big and very rich in raw materials, which the whole world wants,' he said.
The Labor government in 2022 agreed to the National Housing Accord with states and territories, local governments, institutional investors and the construction sector.
The accord aims to build 1.2million new homes by 2029 but, according to Bureau of Statistics data the target is already lagging well behind by about 30,000 properties.
'In the 1980s, nearly half of lower-income young people owned homes ... now it's near 20 per cent. We have to build more homes more quickly.' Housing Minister Clare O'Neil said last month.
Recent CoreLogic data shows Australia's property market prices have reached a record high.
Values increased 0.4 per cent over March after the Reserve Bank cut interest rates for the first time in four years.
The lift in CoreLogic's national Home Value Index was broad, with rises in every capital city except Hobart, along with all the rest-of-state regions.
The rate cut's helpful nudge on borrowing capacity and mortgage serviceability helped push the average Australian home to $820,300.
The median home value in Sydney was the highest of all capitals, sitting at $1,104,000 in March.
Canberra had the biggest monthly increase in home prices among the capitals, rising 0.54 per cent month-on-month.
The average price of a home in the nation's capital is $834,000, making it the third most expensive city behind Sydney and Brisbane.
Melbourne, where the average home costs $781,000, sits behind Adelaide at fifth on the affordability table.