Foreign investors are purchasing thousands of Australian homes every year while first-home buyers find it harder than ever to break into the market, new data shows.
According to the latest Foreign Investment Review Board quarterly report, released earlier this month, there were almost 1,000 purchases approved to overseas buyers in the first three months of 2025 alone, with those from China topping the list.
Over the first three quarters of the last financial year there were 3,035 residential real estate investments from foreign buyers, who do not include those with permanent visas, New Zealand citizens, or joint tenants purchasing with Australian citizen, permanent resident or New Zealander spouses.
Most of the approved foreign investors were from China, followed by Taiwan, India, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Nepal, the UK and Malaysia, for properties with a combined value of $3.7 billion.
The federal government last year brought in new rules limiting foreign investors to purchases of new homes, vacant land, or established homes for redevelopment for two years from April 2025, but data from realestate.com.au and Chinese language site Juwai IQI show demand from overseas remains high.
Juwai IQI Co-Founder and Group Managing Director Daniel Ho said there was a 40% year-on-year increase in inquires in the December quarter of 2025, and revealed the typical Chinese buyer had a budget of about $1 million.
At the same time entry-level prices are now at historic highs after rising by 68% over the past five years, while wages have grown by less than a third of that rate, according to the latest Domain First Home Buyer Report.
“In some places, we’ve seen entry-level prices rising over 20 per cent in the last 12 months, which is an extreme rate of price growth,” Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell said.
“At those rates, no one stands a chance of keeping up. While the market is fragmented across Australia and there are still pockets of affordability, they are shrinking.
“I would say this is the worst we’ve ever seen it for first-home buyers. It’s now more challenging to get into the market than it’s ever been.”
A couple aged 25-34 now needs seven years and seven months to save the 20% deposit needed to buy an entry-level house in Sydney, followed by six years and three months in Brisbane, five years and seven months in Adelaide, five years and four months in Perth, and five years and three months in Melbourne.
According to an analysis by Canstar.com.au earlier this week, the typical house is out of reach for a solo buyer earning the national average full time wage in every capital city, and in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth the median-prices unit is unaffordable also.
In Sydney, where the median price is could hit $2 million by next year, an individual requires an income of $232,000 to but the median house, and $134,000 to buy the median unit, while the national average full-time wage in January was $104,807.
Time to save for a 20% deposit on an entry-level house for a couple aged 25-34
