Chinese buyers fuel Aussie housing boom

Almost one third of the home loans written in September by a mortgage provider part-owned by Macquarie Group Ltd were to Chinese investors, according to the chairman of the firm.

Yellow Brick Road Holdings Ltd, 18.4 percent owned by Macquarie, lent A$320 million ($281.6 milllion) to Chinese investors out of a total A$1.1 billion in disbursements last month, said Mark Bouris, meaning the proportion of Chinese borrowers has doubled in the past year, he said. Australian lenders and property developers are gaining from the surging demand, because China's housing market is faltering.

Chinese buyers overtook Americans to become the biggest buyers of real estate in Australia in the 12 months to June 2013, investing A$5.9 billion into commercial and residential property, a 42 percent increase from the previous 12 months, according to Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board.