A recently released study claims that new migrants moving to Australian capital cities and major regional centres are helping to boost house prices by as much as AUS$6,500 each year.
The study, carried out by senior lecturer at Monash Business School Daniel Melser, and, RMIT University student Morteza Moallemi, states that in cities where the new migrant population grew by 1 per cent each year, house prices rose by 0.9 per cent.
“House prices would have been around 1.4 per cent lower per annum, and units 0.8 per cent lower, if there had been no immigration [from 2006 to 2016],” they wrote in the study.
Speaking to Domain.com.au, Melser said that there has been a bigger impact on house prices than units or apartments, while some specific migrant groups also had a bigger impact on house prices than others.
“Chinese and Indian immigrants have high rates of home ownership,” Melser explained.
The study noted that 55.9 per cent of Chinese migrants between 2006 and 2016 were home owners, while 39.3 per cent of migrants from India owned a home. On average, only 35.4 per cent of migrants from other countries bought a property in this period.
Article published 10th February 2020