Shanghai | The number of Chinese buying overseas homes will slow rapidly this year, according to Mandarin-language property portal Juwai.com, but Australia is seeing an uptick in inquiries due to Beijing's recent currency devaluation. 
Juwai co-chief executive Simon Henry said overall sales growth by Chinese buyers would slow from 25 per cent last year to about 10 per cent this year. He attributed the cooling to Beijing's crackdown on illegal capital outflows, the slowing Chinese economy and a hit to confidence from the recent sharemarket slide.
"Confidence has been rattled by the stockmarket fall even though very few people own shares," Mr Henry said.
He said home sales in the United States had been the hardest hit, with growth in Chinese buyers expected to slow to about 5 per cent this year.
This has been attributed to Beijing's devaluation of the yuan against the US dollar in late   August, which has made property and education in Australia and Canada relatively more affordable.
Juwai estimates the number of property searches for Australia has grown 15 per cent this year, slightly stronger than the same period in 2014.
Mr Henry said this would help insulated mid-priced homes in Australia but high-end Australian property would be the most affected by Beijing's tighter enforcement of capital controls. "I think this [the capital controls] are definitely going to hit the higher end as it will be harder to justify transferring $10 million out of the country via a legal channel," he said.
"That said, I think it is pretty easy to justify something around $1 million."
China has previously tolerated significant capital outflows via so called "grey channels" but has tightened enforcement in recent weeks as the economy slows and fears over capital flight put downward pressure on the currency.
The crackdown from Beijing has resulted in Chinese banks setting up watch lists for unusual transactions and preventing those wanting to transfer money overseas using the foreign currency quotas of family and friends. Under China's closed capital account, an individual can only transfer $US50,000 ($70,000) into an overseas account each year. Exceptions are made for the purchases of homes for children attending school or university overseas and for tuition.
One Chinese property agent told The Australian Financial Review earlier this week that the tighter enforcement of capital outflows was starting to have a "significant impact" on his business.
China's move to tighten its capital controls comes after the country's banks reported net capital outflows of $US109 billion in the first quarter of 2015, according to the Bank for International Settlements.
The People's Bank of China has also been spending record amounts of its foreign reserves to keep the yuan stable after the devaluation.