Jo Eccles, Director of Sourcing Property, explains:
"The Australian dollar is extremely strong right now, largely due to Australia being so commodity rich and the boom in China's demand for its commodities.
"We're therefore seeing a number of Australia based buyers, mainly who are purchasing for an investment. They view central London property as a relatively safe investment, and they're getting a saving on it due to the favourable exchange rate.
"Most of our Australian clients typically buy a one or two bedroom apartment between £400,000 - £800,000. Some of them fly over to the UK for about a week to look at the options, whereas others buy remotely and never physically see what they've bought. In this case, we do the search, shortlist and purchase via email and telephone.
"Because the rental market for good quality one and two bedroom flats is so strong in London, their buy-to-let investment is usually rented out within a couple of weeks at most."
One such buyer, Helen Rooney, who holds a senior HR position at Johnson & Johnson in Sydney, recently purchased a one bedroom property in Clerkenwell through Sourcing Property.
Helen explains:
"An Australian friend of mine who owns property in London encouraged me to look at purchasing a property as part of my investment portfolio, the view being that staying out of the equities market was a good thing at this point in time and that London is an attractive proposition given the strength of the Australian dollar.
"I was also comfortable with London as an investment destination as I used to live in Clerkenwell when I worked in London years ago. I wanted to buy there as it's a great place to live with a mix of restaurants and bars, and it's walking distance to many work locations.
"The property I bought was rented out at full asking price within one week of going onto the market, giving me a gross rental yield of nearly 5%. I aim to keep the property for the long term, renting it out until I own it out-right."
