Though it has been some 58 days since we celebrated the ringing in of our new year, our friends over in China are now in party mode as they welcomed 2015 in with a glorious bang at Chinese New Year celebrations held throughout the world over the past week.

This year is the Chinese Year of the Goat, the eighth symbol of the Chinese zodiac.  The goat is a timeless symbol of good fortune in most parts of the orient, but does it coincide with a time of good fortune for the Brisbane real estate industry? 

Chinese New Year actually has a very real impact on many industries in Australia, not just real estate.  Each year in February, when the celebration occurs, we see a huge influx of tourists coming to Australia from Asia to celebrate the holiday with their family here.

Hotel group, Accor, reported up to 95 per cent capacity in its CBD hotels on Thursday, February 19, the first day of the Chinese New Year.

"The spike in occupancy levels in the past 14 days is due to high numbers of outbound Chinese travellers visiting Australia for the Chinese New Year period," Regional Vice-President of another hotel group, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Sean Hunt, told SMH.com.au

With the struggling Australian Dollar falling below 80 cents, it means the visitors here enjoying their New Years holiday are also likely to have a renewed interest in property purchases.

Reports have already come in from Domain.com.au that throughout last weekend, a huge jump in Auction clearance rates was recorded, coinciding with the new year celebration.

“We have definitely seen an increase in enquiries from overseas buyers of late.  There are investors looking right now for their next opportunity in the Brisbane CBD and it is a very exciting time”, said Hannah Schuhmann, Principal of HS Brisbane Property.

Australia has always been high on the list when it comes to Chinese investors purchasing in other countries.  We were listed in the top 10 most desired locations by Chinese purchasers in the 2014 Huran Report.

The report also found that one in every three wealthy Chinese families has properties overseas, the majority of which are in the residential arena.

As the domestic Chinese property market continues to decline, we are likely to see more and more interest from these investors.

Taking everything into account, we think the 2015 Year of the Goat has some pretty exciting things in store for Brisbane and we can not wait to watch it unfold!

Source: Huran Report.