Chinese buyers pushing up home prices in Australian cities

[SYDNEY] Tina Ford, an Australian public servant, said she could hardly believe it when her three-bedroom apartment sold this month for A$1 million (S$1.1 million) at an auction in which all 16 registered bidders were ethnic Chinese.

"I'm over the moon, I'm gobsmacked," said Ms Ford, 53, adding that she "would have been ecstatic with A$940,000" and didn't expect to double what she had paid 14 years ago for her third-floor unit with a balcony 11 km from downtown Sydney in the suburb of Chatswood.

"I suspect that overseas investment, Chinese or otherwise, is certainly pushing prices up, but from a vendor's perspective, I'm ecstatic."