We bought our first house close to a year ago, and I’m still recovering from the process.
I live in Sydney and house prices here are absolutely insane. Keen to get out of the vicious rental cycle I threw myself into the property hunt, search and kill (err I mean purchase).
I had my finances in order, my lease was about to expire and my two kids were ready to find new walls to draw on. What I wasn’t prepared for was the subversive politics involved in house buying and how much perception would play a part at auction.
You see, I’m a second generation Chinese Australian. My mother was born here, my grandparents had lived here for decades and decades. I feel Australian, I just didn’t look the part. And boy, did that become apparent during house inspections.
"The Chinese are here..." I heard a man mutter to his wife, rolling his eyes.
"Oh man, we are going to be renting FOREVER at this rate..." sighed another punter, her blonde curls bouncing in the sunlight.
"I totally feel you!" I wanted to say. "Who are all these bloody foreign investors pushing up the house prices?!" - oh wait... that's me?
I must've inspected anywhere between 20-30 properties during my mad search, and each suburb varied in their reception to my "foreign" face. My hunt centered around the Lower North Shore, an area that is traditionally known for being quite anglicized (think Mosman, Cremorne, Northbridge). My grandparents lived in Lane Cove for close to 50 years, and for a long time were the only Asian faces around. They also stereotypically owned the local Chinese restaurant. The recent influx of new apartment buildings (due to some smart council rezoning laws) has brought a flood of buyers of the "oriental" variety.
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Ummm.. if the only suburbs you looked at were Mosman, Cremorne & Northbridge, I don't think you can really complain about "insane housing prices"...
Interesting to hear your story.
I have also had the joy of looking for property in Sydney, though in the southern suburbs, where buyers from China snapping up property are definitely not a myth. Rather than blame the buyers, we should look at the government rules and regulations that allow foreign investors (regardless of country of origin) to buy residential property fairly easily.
If I could pass as Chinese, I would do exactly as you did, and use that to my advantage ;)