Half of Buyers of Development on Melbourne's Fringe Are Foreign

Developers court overseas buyers amid fears of greater urban sprawl

Victoria's largest home builder Simonds Homes is one of several to have sold house and land packages for the Sanctuary Lakes Resort and Featherbrook estates in Melbourne's west, of which it says half of the combined total of 2500 lots were sold overseas.

''We have 23 agents in China operating in five provinces including all the major cities,'' he [Simonds general manager of sales and marketing Mark Vujovich] said. ''We are introduced word of mouth through our clients and have worked hard at building relationships over there.''

Australia's foreign investment laws encourage overseas-based investors to buy new real estate with the aim of increasing housing supply.

A series of law changes in recent years made it easier, and then harder, for foreign investors to buy existing homes, but were mostly unconcerned with sales of new housing stock.