A senior Turnbull government minister has dismissed concerns that Chinese nationals buying real estate are pushing up house prices, also claiming some Australians confuse buyers with Asian backgrounds for overseas investors.
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Speaking on Sky News, Trade Minister Steve Ciobo told Australians concerned about overseas investment in the residential property market that some Chinese buyers were not foreign nationals, but rather Chinese born-Australians or immigrants.
"There are so many examples where I have been told stories where people say: 'You know what, I saw Chinese buying real estate here in Australia'," he said.
"But you know what? They're Chinese-Australian.
"I think sometimes people make the mistake of seeing anyone who doesn't look caucasian and saying: 'That's a foreign buyer'."
He said Australia's size and population meant house purchases from China alone could not make a significant impact on property prices.
Chinese buyers have purchased $24 billion of Australian housing in the past seven years, analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics and Foreign Investment Review Board data by Credit Suisse showed in 2014.
Mr Ciobo said overseas buyers were "absolutely not" contributing to house prices and additional controls, including by the Foreign Investment Review Board, were not required.
"With respect to real estate, we have one set of rules that applies to people irrespective of where they are from," he said.
"So whether they are from the UK, from South Africa, from Singapore, from China or the United States, the same set of rules apply for all and we say: 'If you meet these conditions then you are able to purchase real estate in Australia'.
"But make no mistake, the notion that in a country the size of Australia, with a population of 23 million people, that in some way high house prices are a consequence of investors from China, frankly it's laughable.
"In a country the size of Australia, with a population of 23 million, not only are high house prices not something that need to be the case if we had a bit more supply coming on to the market, this is what we really see in markets like Sydney."
He said there were false constraints on housing affordability in Sydney.
"You don't have this situation occurring in Perth, it's not occurring in Darwin, it's not occurring in Melbourne because they've got more supply coming online in Melbourne and its not occurring in south-east Queensland.
"Its really important that we don't think that Sydney is a proxy for the entire Australian housing market because it's not," Mr Ciobo said.
