Overseas investors are dominating the property market in Queensland, according to a new report.
New research from ANZ Bank has found that one-quarter of the homes currently under construction in Queensland are to be owned by foreign investors.
The analysis by the 'Big Four' bank showed that the number of properties purchased by investors from abroad over the past five years has increased fivefold.
Overall, foreign investors snapped up between 11,000 and 18,000 Queensland homes between 2015 and 2016, which accounted for ten to 15 per cent of the area's total housing turnover.
This figure is just for existing homes, however, with the ANZ Bank finding that property investors from overseas also snapped up 25 to 45 per cent of new build homes in Queensland during this period.
Daniel Gradwell, senior economist at the ANZ Bank, commented: "In Queensland, the vast majority of foreign approvals were for the construction of new dwellings - about 95 per cent - which probably suggests it's heavily weighted in the apartment sector."
He added that increased investment in the Queensland area from overseas buyers is having a knock-on effect on employment and productivity in the local construction sector.
This has "helped the economy transition away from mining", Mr Gradwell explained.
"The sizeable foreign buyer share of newly constructed housing implies that foreign demand has been an important contributor to Australia's recent construction boom," he continued.
It is not just in Queensland that foreign investors have been heavily contributing to the property market, as the ANZ Bank found that they purchased between 35,000 and 60,000 homes across the whole of Australia in the 2015-16 period. This accounted for between seven and 13 per cent of overall turnover for the housing sector, statistics show.
However, some are sceptical as to whether this will continue to be the case in the future, as the Chinese government recently introduced restrictions on Chinese investors buying properties abroad.
