New Zealand has taken the top spot from the United States, as the country with the largest increase in searches year-on-year (37%), driven by the opening of the trans-Tasman travel bubble, mid year.
China also made a comeback in December, increasing by 13% on December 2020.
Searches from the United States and United Kingdom have come back down to pre-pandemic levels and ended the year down -28% and -8%, respectively.
Overseas search started the year on a high, despite the closed borders; however, as 2021 progressed, searches for properties to buy, on realestate.com.au, began to slow and experienced a -9.19% year-on-year decrease in December.
Searches for rental properties have jumped, in recent months, increasing by 15.06%, year-on-year.
This increase is likely driven by the re-opening of borders allowing students and migrant workers to consider returning to Australia.
The Gold Coast came out on top as the most searched region, for the second year in a row, closely followed by Brisbane.
The surge in interest in QLD is coming from all of the top countries; however, 50% of searches for the Gold Coast are from New Zealand.
Brisbane pipped Melbourne and Sydney to the post and took the second spot, in a year where QLD was definitely the hot spot for property seekers from Australia and overseas.
For most of the top 6 countries for property searches, the most popular suburbs / regions have remained the same, although, the Gold Coast and Brisbane have become more popular for all of them.
Property seekers from China continued to be attracted to the Melbourne suburbs with large Chinese populations, as were those from Hong Kong, who were also interested in Chatswood and Epping, NSW, as well as the popular suburbs in Melbourne.
Singapore shifted its sights to different regions in Australia, in 2021. Previously, blue chip Melbourne suburbs such as Toorak and Brighton had been in the top list for Singaporean property seekers; however, the Gold Coast and Brisbane also caught their fancy in 2021.
Dellow, K., 2022. PropTrack Overseas Search Report – January 2022 – realestate.com.au. [online] Realestate.com.au. Available at: <https://www.realestate.com.au/insights/proptrack-overseas-search-report-january-2022/> [Accessed 18 February 2022].