Overseas developers hold property exhibitions in China every year FOR Chinese already living in Australia, like Sarah Liao, an investment property is seen as a safe option -- and one that her relatives in China are now looking at as well. Ms Liao was born in China and came to Australia as a student when she was 20. In March she bought an apartment in Melbourne and now her cousin in Guangzhou is scouring the Melbourne unit market. She said an Australian property bubble wasn't on her radar. Ms Liao said overseas developers held property exhibitions in China every year. "From my view that's good because I am already in the market and prices will go up," she said. Ms Liao purchased an off-the-plan apartment at the Atria complex in Hawthorn for about $650,000 with her husband. Her cousin in China was looking to buy in Melbourne so her child could attend university there. "She wants to buy one property so it's free rental for the kids, then when the market is at the right phase my cousin will sell it," Ms Liao said. ANZ senior property analyst David Cannington said that house prices in Beijing had increased by 80 per cent since 2006, compared with about 35 per cent growth in Sydney. Richardson & Wrench Mosman and Neutral Bay director Richard Simeon - who has sold more than $25 million of properties to high-net-worth Chinese buyers in the past five weeks - said that most buyers had their children in mind when purchasing in Australia. "There has been an increasing amount of buyers who are sending their kids to school here," Mr Simeon said. They believe in the education, the lifestyle and the values in Australia and are happy to have their kids established here. In Brisbane, Shanghai-born student Collin Peng, 23, is hunting for an apartment close to the University of Queensland. His parents have a budget of up to $700,000. "Many Chinese parents do this because the housing price in Australia is not much higher than it is in China, especially compared with some big cities," Mr Peng said. CBRE director of residential Tim Rees said the desire to send children to university in Australian would ensure that areas with an established Chinese population sold off-the-charts. In Sydney, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show Sydney's Hurstville and Chatswood had large Chinese communities, with 34 per cent and 13 per cent of residents born in China respectively. Mr Rees marketed the Metro Residences in Chatswood and said that 90 per cent of the 550 apartments were sold to Chinese. "Chatswood is well known in China and so when the Chinese come to Sydney, one of the first things they do is look for known areas to them, and Chatswood's one of those areas," Mr Rees said.