A potential buyer listens to a property sales agent at a promotional event in Hong Kong, Sept. 5, 2013. (Photo : REUTERS)
Mainland Chinese who are seeking property in more developed countries where they may eventually emigrate to are becoming increasingly unwelcome.
The Australian government has proposed "application fees" of AU$10,000 ($7,800) for every AU$1 million that foreigners spend on real estate on top of a new tax on foreign property buyers.
This comes after Chinese investment in Australian real estate soared 60 percent last year.
Hong Kong imposes a "double stamp duty," which is a one-time tax paid when purchasing a residential or commercial property.
Tax on property purchases over HK$2 million ($260,000) was doubled last year for buyers who are non-residents or residents who already own another home.
Buyers from mainland China accounted for a quarter of luxury residential real estate purchases in Hong Kong last year, according to Centaline Property Agency.
Singapore has implemented similar punitive taxes aimed at discouraging the mainland Chinese investors. Governments in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore insist that the new taxes are not directed at any single nationality.
The U.K. government also imposed new taxes in the past three years intended to discourage foreign buyers from the London housing market.
The move came after locals complained about being priced out of the housing market.
The U.S. residential property market also has a huge share of mainland Chinese investments.
In the fiscal year ending March 2014, mainland Chinese buyers accounted for nearly a quarter of all foreign purchasers of residential real estate in the U.S.
Spending rose to about $22 billion from $12.8 billion a year earlier, according to the real estate brokers.
