That's what it looks like for me with the Australian housing market where the Chinese are being blamed for increasing prices. China is the biggest foreign investor in the Australian housing market followed by the US with $12 billion out of $34 billion foreign investment in 2013-14 [1], but it can't be the only explanation.
As a non-permanent resident you can only buy from the plan, no 'used' houses at all: 'If the FIRB feels that the residential real estate in question is only being purchased by a foreign citizen or company just for the purpose of renting it out, or because the purchaser wants to speculate on the property’s future value, permission to purchase will be refused.' [2]
The reasons for the extreme prices are more complex and subsequent Australian governments refuse to change this: banks have been giving out record-low mortgages leading to massive debt and rising houseprices [3], and there's negative gearing, which allows people to overinvest because they can claim later and causes people to hold onto their property, thereby inflating prices [4]. Changing this broken system is detrimental to the parties parties as it would directly cut into income for the rich and the old, and so many blue-collar jobs in Australia depend on building houses. It will only change after the whole bubble implodes.
Except, the FIRB does not collect adequate data to truely monitor the acquisition of housing by non-Residents, and these regulations are easily to get around and are often flaunted.
I have no clue how much has changed there since then, and I don't assume anything will change. This still doesn't mean that any of my original points are wrong, the entire system is bad and IMHO Chinese foreign investment is just a scapegoat (if you look at the report, at that time Chinese investment was already the highest but back then very close ($5.9 billion) to US ($4.4 billion) and Canadian ($4.9 billion) investment: Why did no-one complain about either?)
The government held an inquiry into it, and this is the first key thing in the report:
"First, there is no accurate or timely data that tracks foreign investment in residential real estate. No-one really knows how much foreign investment there is in residential real estate, nor where that investment comes from."
That's what it looks like for me with the Australian housing market where the Chinese are being blamed for increasing prices. China is the biggest foreign investor in the Australian housing market followed by the US with $12 billion out of $34 billion foreign investment in 2013-14 [1], but it can't be the only explanation.
As a non-permanent resident you can only buy from the plan, no 'used' houses at all: 'If the FIRB feels that the residential real estate in question is only being purchased by a foreign citizen or company just for the purpose of renting it out, or because the purchaser wants to speculate on the property’s future value, permission to purchase will be refused.' [2]
The reasons for the extreme prices are more complex and subsequent Australian governments refuse to change this: banks have been giving out record-low mortgages leading to massive debt and rising houseprices [3], and there's negative gearing, which allows people to overinvest because they can claim later and causes people to hold onto their property, thereby inflating prices [4]. Changing this broken system is detrimental to the parties parties as it would directly cut into income for the rich and the old, and so many blue-collar jobs in Australia depend on building houses. It will only change after the whole bubble implodes.
[1] http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Pacific/Australia/Price-H...
[2] http://www.australia-migration.com/page/Foreign_Investors_Bu...
[3] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-29/verrender-housing-bubb...
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_gearing#Australia