Searches for Australian properties from the United States have skyrocketed as election discourse heats up.
International searches for Aussie properties increased in July in large part due to elevated interest from the United States.
Last month, searches for properties to buy rose by 9% month-on-month and 3% year-on-year and are higher than the same period over the past five years.
For rental properties, searches rose by 8% compared to the previous month and were down slightly by 1% year-on-year.
There has been significant year-on-year growth in searches from the United Kingdom, Singapore and India looking at properties to buy, but none more so than the United States, which increased by 51%.
It is common to see a spike in searches from overseas when there is political or economic turmoil in other countries and an increase in searches from Hong Kong began during the unrest in 2019, and searches also rose at the start of the pandemic.
It is not possible to identify whether the searchers are Australian nationals or citizens of another country, but it is more likely that Australians living abroad are the majority of searchers when there are events that affect their standard of living.
The increase in searches from the United States came at the time when polls suggested Donald Trump was favoured to win the election and it remains to be seen whether the change in the presidential candidate for the Democratic Party will have an impact on searches in the coming months.
Increases in rental searches are usually influenced by those wanting to study or work in Australia and the number of searches tend to spike at certain times of year when migration is high, such as January and February when overseas students arrive.
There has been a slight decrease in arrivals on work and student visas in the most recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, compared to earlier in the year, and this is in line with seasonal trends.
Overall, the capital cities get the most attention from overseas searchers looking to buy and rent, with the exception of the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast.
However, searchers from different countries gravitate towards more specific areas.
Buyers from China and Hong Kong, for example, search the most for suburbs with high Chinese populations such as Balwyn, Glen Waverley, and Box Hill, all in Victoria.
Renters from these two nations tend to favour more central suburbs such as Zetland, Chippendale and Waterloo - all in Sydney.
Searchers from the US and UK, aside from inner-city suburbs, gravitate towards beachside suburbs, such as Manly, Brighton, and Fremantle.
Buyers from India are partial to suburbs with a lot of new development, such as Tarneit and Point Cook, whereas renters focus on the CBDs or Clayton where Monash University has its campus.
The search data also reflects this trend as rental searches from overseas peak in the first few months of the year, as the new school year starts.
The United States is now the top country for buy searches across all but three states and territories.
The United Kingdom takes the top spot for searches for South Australia and Western Australia, and New Zealand remain the top country for Queensland searches.
Searches from Indonesia have increased by nearly 50% in the past two years to become a top ten country for searches for Australian property.
Most properties purchases made by buyers from overseas are new homes, due to government restrictions on the type of properties available to non-residents.
The most viewed of these new developments are in the major cities, such as West Side Place in Melbourne that has had the most properties views from overseas in the past six months.
Two more developments in the top five are also in Melbourne, Australia 108, officially the highest building in Australia and 380 Melbourne.
Developments in Sydney and Brisbane also make it into the top five list.
Searches from overseas for properties to buy and rent in Australia fluctuate at different times of the year based on things such as the start of a school year and when more jobs are available.
However, over recent years, spikes in searches from specific countries during periods of political, social, or economic change have been observed.
A certain amount of this activity is likely from Australians living overseas, especially at the start of the pandemic, but the sustained growth in searches coming from the US over the past five years suggests that it is unlikely just from Australian citizens, but a combination of interest from different cohorts of the population.
It will be interesting to see whether search activity from the US changes in the coming months, before and after the election.
