The federal government's significant investor programme has sparked interest from Chinese industrialists in investment bank Moelis & Co's $500 million property fund, according to The Australian Financial Review.
Although the programme, which allows investors access to visas for a minimum sum of $5 million, has not led to a flood of wealthy immigrants, the advisory firm's joint managing director in Australia, Andrew Martin, said the slowly developing Chinese investor relationships are likely to spread into other investment vehicles.
He told the newspaper that attracting Chinese millionaires to Australian investment schemes requires time-consuming relationship-building, but that once established those relationships produce interest in a range of investment vehicles.
“A lot of the business in China is referral so if you can gain the confidence of one family they tend to invest alongside their family members and associates,” Mr Martin told the AFR.
Mr Martin added that the visa programme could eventually produce a $20 billion dollar annual windfall for the Australian economy.