Transnational real estate in Australia: new Chinese diaspora, media representation and urban transformation in Sydney's Chinatown

Abstract

Foreign real estate investment, especially from Asia, is growing rapidly in many global cities. Whilst transnational real estate has recently been highlighted in various media coverage, its actual process is still relatively under researched by housing scholars. This paper fills this research gap by framing transnational real estate in the broader context of intensified globalisation and increased transnational mobility of people, capital and information and by grounding it within the case study of Sydney's Chinatown in Australia which focuses on three dimensions of the process, namely the role of Chinese diaspora in shaping transnational real estate practices, the locality characteristics of Chinatown which contribute to Chinese capital accumulation and urban transformation in the area, and the manner in which transnational real estate investment practices have been reshaped, due to misrepresentation of the issue in public media. Based on in-depth interviews, content analysis of newspapers and analysis of official statistics, this paper demonstrates the global–local nexus of transnational real estate process in Australia which is constituted, and shaped, by various global forces and local factors, including social actors’ motives and practices, geographical settings and cultural politics.