Chinese developers are swooping on run-down commercial properties in Sydney and Melbourne to "land bank'' and redevelop as apartments during the next boom.

Foreign buyers snapped up one in every eight new properties built this year - up from one in 20 properties in 2011, National Australia Bank research reveals.

So great is the international demand - fuelled by a falling Aussie dollar and Beijing's ban on buying more than one property - that some developers are now marketing new units exclusively to offshore buyers.

Andrew Taylor said Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane were the most popular cities for Chinese househunting, but Perth is really climbing fast.

Asian buyers were more likely to buy the more expensive apartments - costing more than $600,000 - with extra space or views.

Mr Taylor said one Chinese buyer with $1 million to spent told him she loved Melbourne because "it's close to kangaroos and the Great Ocean Road and they pay you to have babies''.

Many Chinese investors were abandoning Singapore and Hong Kong in favour of Australia.
 

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