Canadian REITs poised to outperform U.S. peers

Stronger economy, healthy banking sector underpin Canadian REITs

By Tania Haas


TORONTO (MarketWatch) — Canadian real-estate investment trusts are positioned to outperform their U.S. peers thanks to Canada’s strong economic fundamentals and the real estate sector’s more solid outlook, analysts and investors said.

Higher employment, a healthier banking sector and a better financing environment mean Canada’s real-estate investment trusts (REITs) are poised to extend their stronger historical performance while U.S. REITs struggle against the background of a lingering housing crisis and high household debt levels. But some analysts caution that the sector may have seen most of its gains for the current cycle.

“Compared to U.S. REITs, Canadian REITs offer investors higher yields and better historical total returns,” said Dennis Mitchell, Chief Investment Officer and Senior Portfolio Manager at Sentry Investments, which has about C$7 billion in assets under management.

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“The fundamentals of the Canadian commercial real estate market include higher occupancies, a better financing environment, higher consumer spending and lower unemployment,” he said.

Canadian REITs have been helped by Canada’s better economic situation, Mitchell and others in the industry said.

More jobs lead to higher housing occupancy rates and stronger consumer spending and Canada’s unemployment rate of 7.3% stands out against jobless figures from other major economies. The U.S. unemployment rate is 8.2%, while the euro-zone’s rate is 11.2%.

The better financing environment is supported by Canada’s strong banking sector, which earlier this year Moody’s rated at AA2, higher than international rivals. The World Economic Forum also ranked Canada’s banking system as the most sound in the world, four years in a row.

Both the U.S. and Canada are suffering from sluggish growth, each registering 1.9% gross domestic product expansion in the first quarter. But the weak growth, as long as it doesn’t lead to recession, can help REITs because it should allow central banks in both countries to keep interest rates low, which in turn makes borrowing costs more affordable.

These factors add up to a better outlook for REITs in Canada, even though their U.S. counterparts also offer decent returns, Mitchell said.

“The outlook for Canadian REITs is more positive than U.S. REITs right now. However, despite that fact, U.S. REITs have kept pace with Canadian REITs, possibly because they were cheaper to start with,” he said.

Top picks

Michael Smith, an analyst at Macquarie Capital Markets Canada, has three top picks: Allied Properties CA:AP.UN +1.18%  , First Capital Realty CA:FCR +3.32%   and Boardwalk REIT CA:BEI.UN +2.85%  .

Allied Properties specializes in restored office space primarily in downtown Toronto and Montreal. Smith has an outperform rating on the stock in part because of solid leasing activity. The company saw a 7.8% rental bump over expiring rates in the first quarter, which will lead to greater revenue. And young workers in Canada’s urban centers want to rent homes closer to their downtown workplaces. Allied’s current yield around 4.67% also makes it an attractive purchase.

Calgary-based Boardwalk manages over 225 residential properties in five provinces. Occupancy during the first quarter stood at 98%, which Smith says is “likely at or near the highest it will get.” Boardwalk’s dividend yield is around 3.1%.


Canadian REIT picks by Mitchell at Sentry Investments include Dundee REIT CA:D.UN +0.52%   and Mainstreet Equity CA:MEQ +1.13%  . Dundee REITs’ dividend yield is around 6.01%; Mainstreet doesn’t offer a dividend.

Other institutional investors like James West attribute the positive REIT environment in Canada less to job creation and consumer spending, and more to population growth.

“Canada Immigration announced last month that it would seek to expand Canada’s annual immigration from the current 225,000 per year to 400,000 per year, creating primary consumer demand for all sectors in Canada, especially real estate,” said West who guides institutional clients through his firm Midas Letter Portfolio Advisors.

His top pick is Vancouver-based Partners REIT CA:PAR.UN +0.14%  , which earlier this year announced a dividend yield of approximately 8.7%.

“Partners focuses on commercial developments with tenants like Shoppers Drug Mart and Canadian Tire, who sell everyday consumables, and discount stores like Wal-Mart, who are in high demand regardless of employment stats,” said West.

One area of concern for REIT investors is the potential for rising interest rates. But sector specialists say rising rates are not always bad.

“It depends on why interest rates are rising,” said Mitchell. “If interest rates are rising because inflation is rising, the unemployment rate is falling and economic growth is picking up, then that’s positive for REITs.

“However, if interest rates are going up because Greece has defaulted and risk premiums are rising then I would expect all equities, including REITs, would suffer,” he said.

Mitchell owns U.S. REITs Simon Property REIT SPG +2.03%    and Brookfield Office Properties CA:BPO +0.83%  , which has properties in Toronto and Calgary.

Simon and Brookfield’s dividend yields are roughly 2.7% and 3.5% respectively.

Not for everyone

Some investors shy away from concentrating too much on REITs. Cumberland Private Wealth Management, which focuses on clients with C$1 million or more, has only one Canadian REIT in its portfolio.

Cumberland owns Chartwell Senior Housing REIT CA:CSH.UN +1.18%  . Steve Hall, an investment analyst at Cumberland, said Chartwell Senior Housing now manages about 186 homes in Canada, making it the largest owner-operator of senior housing in the country.

Hall said there is reason to be wary of how REITs will perform in the coming months.

“Hard to know what’s in store for REITs,” he said. “They’ve performed really well so far this year, but it’s good to ask yourself, can it continue? As Wayne Gretzky said, ‘You want to go where the puck is going, not where the puck is.’ ”

The Canadian Population in 2011: Age and Sex

The number of seniors aged 65 and over increased 14.1% between 2006 and 2011 to nearly 5 million. This rate of growth was higher than that of children aged 14 and under (0.5%) and people aged 15 to 64 (5.7%).

Seniors accounted for a record high of 14.8% of the population in Canada in 2011, up from 13.7% five years earlier.

In 2011, the proportion of seniors in Canada was among the lowest of the G8 countries.

The population of children aged 4 and under increased 11.0% between 2006 and 2011. This was the highest growth rate for this age group since the 1956 to 1961 period during the baby boom.

In 2011, there were 5,825 centenarians in Canada, up 25.7% since 2006. This was the second most rapidly growing age group among all age groups after those aged 60 to 64.

In 2011, the working-age population (those aged 15 to 64) represented 68.5% of the Canadian population. This proportion was higher than in any other G8 country, except Russia.

Among the working-age population, 42.4% were in the age group 45 to 64, a record high proportion. Almost all people aged 45 to 64 in 2011 were baby boomers.

In 2011, census data showed for the first time that there were more people aged 55 to 64, typically the age group where people leave the labour force, than aged 15 to 24, typically the age group where people enter it.

In 2011, the proportion of seniors was the highest in the Atlantic provinces, Quebec and British Columbia.

For the first time in 50 years, the number of children aged 4 and under increased between 2006 and 2011 in all provinces and territories.

In 2011, all census metropolitan areas located west of Ontario had a proportion of people aged 65 and over below the national average of 14.8%, except for Kelowna and Victoria in British Columbia.

Nearly 1 in 5 people were aged 65 and over in Peterborough and Trois-Rivières; in Calgary, this proportion was lower than 1 in 10 people.

Most census metropolitan areas with proportions of seniors lower than the Canadian average (such as Calgary, Halifax and St. John's) also had higher-than-average proportions of people aged between 15 and 64.

Among census agglomerations, Parksville, on Vancouver Island in British Columbia and Elliot Lake, in Ontario, had the highest proportion of seniors, at twice the national average of 14.8%.

In 2011, 5 of the 10 census agglomerations that registered the highest proportions of people aged 15 to 64 were in Alberta.

Seven of the 10 municipalities with the highest proportion of seniors were in British Columbia.

The number of Canadians aged 65 and older is up and is close to 5 million

The 2011 Census counted 4,945,060 people aged 65 and older in Canada, an increase of more than 609,810, or 14.1%, between 2006 and 2011. This rate of growth was more than double the 5.9% increase for the Canadian population as a whole.

In comparison, the number of children aged 14 and under increased by 27,505, or 0.5%, to 5,607,345.


During the same period, the number of people aged 15 to 64 increased by 1,226,475, or 5.7%, to 22,924,285.

Seniors accounted for a record high of 14.8% of the population in 2011, up from 13.7% five years earlier.

This proportion has steadily increased since the end of the 1960s for two reasons: below replacement fertility levels2 and longer life expectancy.

Despite the growth in their numbers, the proportion of children aged 14 and under fell from 17.7% in 2006 to 16.7% in 2011.

The proportion of the working-age population remained virtually unchanged between 2006 and 2011 at 68.5%.

Population aged 60 to 64 growing most rapidly

Of all five-year age groups, the 60 to 64 year old group experienced the fastest increase, at 29.1% (Figure 2). This suggests that population aging will accelerate in Canada in the coming years, as the large baby boom generation, those born between 1946 and 1965, reaches 65 years old. The first baby boomers reached 65 years old in 2011.


Population aged 60 to 64 growing most rapidly

Of all five-year age groups, the 60 to 64 year old group experienced the fastest increase, at 29.1% (Figure 2). This suggests that population aging will accelerate in Canada in the coming years, as the large baby boom generation, those born between 1946 and 1965, reaches 65 years old. The first baby boomers reached 65 years old in 2011.


Canada's population among the youngest in the G8

The proportion of seniors increased between 2006 and 2011 in all G8 countries except Russia, suggesting many countries face challenges related to population aging.

Canada's population remains one of the youngest among the G8. In 2011, only the United States and Russia had a lower proportion of seniors than Canada, as shown in Figure 3. The baby boom in Canada was larger than in many other G8 countries, and most baby boomers have not yet reached age 65.


In Canada, the proportion of people aged 15 to 64 has remained close to 68% since 1981, because the baby boom generation has been in this age range.

As the first baby boomers reached age 65 in 2011, it is projected that the working-age population as a proportion of the total population will decrease.3

Record high proportion of people aged 45 to 64 in the working-age population

In 2011, the proportion of people aged 45 to 64 among the working-age population reached 42.4%, a record proportion. This was well above the proportion of 28.6% observed in 1991.

Almost all people aged 45 to 64 in 2011 were baby boomers.

Fewer young people about to enter the labour force than those about to leave it

In 2011, census data showed for the first time that there were more people in the age group where people typically leave the labour force (55 to 64), than in the age group where people typically enter it (15 to 24).

The 2011 Census counted 4,393,305 people aged 55 to 64 and 4,365,585 people aged 15 to 24.

In 2001, for every person aged 55 to 64, there were 1.40 people in the age group 15 to 24. By 2011, this ratio had fallen slightly below 1 (0.99) for the first time, as shown in Figure 5.

Why Chinese immigrants struggle with English fluency

Nicholas KeungImmigration Reporter

Zhenyong Li has no trouble speaking English in his engineering jargon, but the Chinese immigrant says it can still be challenging to carry on small talk.

And yet, casual conversation with native speakers around the water cooler is crucial to language development — and social integration — for those whose mother tongue is something else, especially Mandarin.

A new study found the Mandarin-speaking immigrants it tracked had made “no significant progress” in their English accent, fluency and comprehensibility seven years after their arrival here, compared with their Slavic-language (Russian and Ukrainian) speaking counterparts.

The study by the Montreal-based Institute for Research on Public Policy followed 25 immigrants each from Mandarin and Slavic groups, and assessed their listening and speaking skills at years 1, 2 and 7.

“Mandarin-speakers over time did not get much easier to understand when native listeners heard them speak,” said University of Alberta educational psychology professor Tracey Derwing, who co-authored the study with NorQuest College language instructor Erin Waugh.

“They made very little progress in their pronunciation and fluency. They still had many pauses and hesitation.”

Participants in the study — all possessing the same overall language proficiency, well-educated and with similar language training here — were shown pictures and asked to describe them in their own words, while being evaluated by 30 listeners to eliminate any bias or subjectivity.

Researchers also found the Mandarin speakers had had significantly fewer conversations of 10 minutes or more with native and non-native English speakers than did the Slavic participants.

The Mandarin speakers were, as a whole, more reluctant to initiate conversation and appeared to be less aware of current local events than the Slavic speakers.

The Slavic speakers, as a group, the report said, were more assertive and more deliberate in their effort to learn English. They also had an advantage because of interests shared with the larger community (ice hockey, for example), which helped with conversations.

Li, who came here from Shanghai in 1998, said Mainland Chinese learn their English from textbooks through reading and writing, and have no opportunity to drill their listening and speaking skills outside the classroom.

“If you cannot listen or speak proper English, you feel discouraged to participate in a conversation because you are afraid others don’t understand you,” said Li, 52, who has a master’s degree in engineering from the California Institute of Technology and is a manager of a Markham consulting firm.

The Chinese Professionals Association of Canada in Toronto has introduced several programs to address the language gap, which focus on pronunciation and “soft skills” in communication.

“It’s vital to be able to carry small talk,” said its president, Hugh Zhao, who moved here from Shenyang in 1989. “Small talk leads to common understanding and other big topics. It’s not enough just to talk about the weather in Canada.”

Zhao, a computing manager at the University of Toronto, said the Chinese language is very different from the English alphabet, and so are the cultures attached to those language.

Also, silence, which for the Chinese is a virtue reflecting humbleness, is not valued in the West, where people tend to appreciate participation and outspokenness.

“(Mainland) Chinese students are not active in class because, if they understand it, they don’t want to show off. And if they do not understand something, they don’t want to ask and show their ignorance,” Zhao said.

“Sometimes, people are just afraid to make mistakes and decide not to speak. We have to learn not to be afraid to embarrass and humiliate ourselves.”

Derwing said English-language training for immigrants must focus more on listening, speaking and pronunciation skills, as well as the so-called soft skill of engaging in casual conversation.

“Communication is a two-way street. The burden of communication should not be on immigrants’ shoulders only,” she added. “Canadians should not just zone out or shut down when they hear somebody speak with an accent.”

Immigrants need help learning Canada’s ‘secret rules’, researchers say

BY LOUISA TAYLOR, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN


OTTAWA — Immigrants need help learning not just Canada’s two official languages, but also the “secret rules” of Canadian life in order to fit into their new home, according to the authors of a report released Thursday.

The ability to speak and read English or French is viewed as key to the economic success of newcomers, and the federal government is implementing mandatory language testing for immigrants in their country of origin and increasing the level of proficiency required. But in their report for the Institute for Research on Public Policy, Tracey Derwing and Erin Waugh looked at the role of language and cultural practices in how immigrants develop friendships, join social organizations and build networks within the mainstream.

The study, Language Skills and the Social Integration of Canada’s Adult Immigrants, reviewed the federal Language Instruction for Newcomers (LINC) program, which is available to all permanent immigration classes until they become Canadian citizens. It also reviewed existing literature, including a Citizenship and Immigration study of language proficiency levels and a longitudinal study Derwin co-authored that has followed Mandarin and Slavic-language speakers since their arrival in Canada, assessing their accents and fluency as part of overall comprehensibility.

Derwing says some groups have an easier time mastering Canada’s official languages than others, which factors into their success or failure at social integration.

“Mandarin speakers are going to have more difficulty with English or French than Slavic speakers, simply because the Slavic languages are related to the same larger language family. They share some things in common, whereas Mandarin is totally unrelated,” says Derwing. “Just linguistically alone, it’s harder for somebody from a Chinese language background, or Vietnamese or Cambodian, just because the languages are so far apart.”

Still, Derwing, a professor of TESL (teaching English as a second language) at the University of Alberta, and Waugh, an English-in-the-workplace instructor at NorQuest College in Edmonton, say they found that even those who made strides in language acquisition had opportunities stifled by the newcomer’s inability to understand the “pragmatics” or cultural customs of the Canadian-born — something not addressed in most language programs.

“If you’re going to ask your boss for a raise, you have to be able to self-promote in a way that isn’t going to offend,” says Derwing, co-director of the Metropolis Centre for Research on Immigration, Integration and Diversity. “Or if you realize someone has said something that isn’t true and if it’s a high-stakes situation where it’s important that the facts come out, you have to find a way to say it without the other person losing face. Those things are culturally determined — there is a Canadian way of doing things.”

Derwing says her longitudinal study of Mandarin and Slavic-language speakers in Alberta demonstrates that too often, newcomers not only lack these skills, they lack connections to Canadian-born friends and neighbours who could help them learn.

“Among Mandarin speakers in particular, we had people coming in saying they didn’t know their Canadian neighbours, they didn’t have conversations in English for the most part,” says Derwing.

“They’d go to work and be at a computer screen all day or have the same routinized conversations day in, day out. In another study done with foreign-born engineers … very few of them reported having Canadian-born friends or contact with Canadian-born.”

Consequently, Derwing and Waugh believe the federal government ought to expand its language-training curriculum to include more such “pragmatics” to help people navigate the unspoken cultural rules.

“It’s important to address that in language classes, and for instructors to point out why this matters,” says Derwing. “It’s the ability to make small talk and initiate conversations that go beyond the weather. You need to seem like you know what’s going on.”

The authors also recommend broadening eligibility criteria for language training, and expanding the government’s Community Connection program, which funds settlement agencies to introduce newcomers to Canadian volunteers who can act as their cultural guides.

“The thing that surprised me the most was people had so much difficulty finding Canadian friends,” says Derwing, citing an example from the longitudinal study of a husband and wife trying to build a network outside their ethnic community.

“I remember interviewing that woman and she said “I said to my husband, ‘We have to find some people to talk to us.’ They tried a couple of churches. But they were in their mid-30s and everyone at church was 70 or 75.”

The bottom line, says Derwing, is that Canada ought to recognize immigrants can’t do it alone.

“They’re working five hours a day trying to learn English, but there are secret rules, and if nobody tells you what they are, you’re going to have a hard time figuring it out,” says Derwing. “Communication is a two-way street and they need a little help from the people who understand the system.”

ltaylor@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/louisataylorCIT

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen


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Migrants mean business: The Australian perspective

ROWAN CALLICK, ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR From: The Australian


THE battle to bring workers from a land of surplus labour to a land of surplus resources -- now being fought between unions and miners over Gina Rinehart's $9.5 billion Roy Hill iron ore prospect -- is not new.

It began in the gold rushes 150 years ago, when there were frequent skirmishes between miners of European backgrounds and those who came seeking their fortune from southern China.

It continued through Federation, when pressure from organised labour led to the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 that privileged "white Australia".

Now Australia is seeking to benefit further from its connections with China, its major trading partner, through upgrading the business migration scheme, which Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has revamped.

This comes into effect from July 1, and follows an internal review similar to that run last year by Michael Knight into student visas.


Australia has always depended heavily on foreign investment to build the country's economy. Today not only does China have the deepest pockets, it has also nurtured a new generation of hungry businesspeople.

Some of this generation are eager to try their hand in a new environment, especially one as green, as promising for their children's education and as economically successful as Australia.

Chinese applicants -- including those from Hong Kong and Taiwan -- dominated the 7796 business migrant visas that Australia issued in the past financial year, taking 61.5 per cent of the places. Next came South Korea with 8.2 per cent, then Malaysia with 5.3 per cent.

The 13 former business visa sub-classes are being reduced to three:

lBusiness talent -- sub-class 132 -- for entrepreneurs sponsored by states or territories, who have $1.5 million assets or $1m funding from a member of the Australian Venture Capital Association

lBusiness innovation and investment (provisional) -- sub-class 188 -- for people with successful businesses, net assets of $800,000 and annual turnovers of $500,000, or who invest $1.5m in state or territory bonds for four years, and have $2.25m in net assets

lBusiness innovation and investment (permanent) -- sub-class 888, the ultimate lucky Chinese number -- for those who have met the provisional visa requirements, have successfully operated a business in Australia for four years, and gain permanent residency.

Bowen has foreshadowed a further category, for the significant investor, who will invest at least $5m in Australia, and who may be fast-tracked to permanent residency on arrival.

Most business migrants will enter under the 188 sub-class, under which they will be awarded points according to age -- 25 to 32 scores highest -- English ability, qualifications, experience in business or investment, net assets, business turnover, and innovation capacity, with patent holders especially valued.

Politicians across Australia have held out the expectation that business migrants will transfer factories from China, invite them to cut ribbons for TV cameras and announce hundreds of new jobs.

Instead, they mostly comprise people such as Liu Jie who is running a retail arm in Melbourne for her family furniture factory in Guangdong, or Michael Li, whose Headway Logistics business is steadily acquiring Australian clients able to fill containers that formerly returned to China empty.

Li, who has visited numerous Rotary clubs in east Melbourne, where he now lives, to help improve his English and build his new Aussie "guanxi" or network, says: "I hear many Australians say they want to export to China's middle class, who are now the biggest buyers, for example, of Australian wines. But they need to learn more about the different Chinese markets first."

Bowen's new measures will place greater weight on business skills and capacity to innovate.

Business migrants will also have to bring more money with them to Australia. But that is not a problem for the nouveaux riches, whose wealth has grown at a pace that often astonishes even them.

The challenge for the immigration officials in Hong Kong, who will assess the applicants at first -- thanks to the new requirement to register an initial "expression of interest" -- is to fathom who could do well in Australia, who is truly committed to a new life there, and who has most to offer for the long term. State as well as federal departments can gain access to information on these potential migrants, via the confidential website AUSkey.

States are key sponsors of new business arrivals -- and adjust their priorities frequently. Recently, for instance NSW decided to stop sponsoring people planning to buy or open restaurants.

Would Frank Lowy have got a tick under the new rules? One of Australia's most famous immigrants, he was born in Czechoslovakia, lived in Hungary and arrived after a few years in Israel with very modest assets. His first business was a partnership with a fellow Hungarian migrant in a deli in Blacktown, western Sydney.

Any premier with instant success and new jobs as priorities might today be impatient with Lowy who, of course, has famously gone on to build the world's biggest shopping mall empire.

Maria Jockel, senior immigration lawyer for Melbourne law firm Holding Redlich, says that since 1994, when Australia began seeking business migrants, it has struggled with the gap between its ambitious aims and the results.

There are now 3000 pages of laws on migration and 16,000 pages of policy guidelines, administered by 7000 bureaucrats, who must process 13,000 applicants per day -- to attain the goal of 190,000 new permanent residencies in the next financial year.

In 2002, says Jockel, a review discovered that most business migrants were not actually living in Australia, and had never established a business here -- sometimes recycling the $500,000 investment required.

The rules were then changed to include a step before permanent residency. The new revamp will ban a shift within a family between who gains the initial visa and who gains PR. This has allowed the key business operator, often the husband, to stay running his firm in China while his wife looks after a retail franchise in Australia.

Tony Wang, who owns the Ausking Immigration and Investment Group, says: "My clients need one to three years to adapt to life in Australia. In time they will get the idea of how to run a bigger business here. They'll hold some of their resources back. No one would want to invest all their money in a project they don't yet feel comfortable about."

He and his wife, who runs their business in Wuhan, operate roadshows to highlight the idea of Australian migration to businesspeople. Education is a major reason. It can be cheaper to put a student through the Australian system once a parent has PR.

Some, Wang says, prize the more relaxed Australian lifestyle, seeking respite from China's often frenetic business world. "And it's warmer here than Canada, and less dangerous than America."

Business migrants, he points out, have to detail not only their assets but their origins -- whether from profits, or salaries, or family gifts or gambling. Applicants also have to prove they have paid appropriate tax. This can all naturally be awkward.

And the introduction to applicants to the Hong Kong office stresses that "state-owned enterprises cannot be considered as equivalent to private ownership".

Chinese people value discretion highly, especially in the face of an acquisitive and inquisitive state such as the People's Republic.

And in Australia, wealthy Chinese families are concerned about the risks of information being divulged that might make them vulnerable to crime.

Wang explains that the wealthiest Chinese, including the elite political class, are highly circumscribed in moving assets offshore. So migrants tend to come from the middle class who have not attracted any special attention.

Zhang Kai, who runs Kai Business Solutions in Melbourne, says: "I generally suggest to business-migrant clients before they come to Australia, that they change their mindset. In China, people may be used to setting up a very, very big project. But here the market is smaller, and people have to think in a more practical way."

He suggests that retail is the easiest way to start in Australia -- even though they may think it's a bit beneath them. "To get PR, you have to run a business successfully, and the government doesn't mind what type of business it is. It's best to take it step by step, I say."

Michael Li differs: "Some people tried to persuade me at first to buy a store, like a bottle shop. Maybe at the beginning that would have been better, I might have made $200,000 profit after a couple of years.

"But I have greater confidence in myself, I believe I will do better for the longer term starting my own company, using my skills in logistics."

Jean-Francois Harvey, a Canadian migration lawyer based in Hong Kong, says that "Australia is looking for active investments, while most of my clients are looking for passive investments".



Economic migrants follow a familiar path to prosperity



LIU Jie, 52, is typical of the business migrants Australia has been attracting in recent years. As it is for many, their

first encounter was accidental and positive.

She and her husband first travelled from China to Australia as tourists. "We loved the climate and the people and we decided to migrate here."

They don't have the kind of business plan that an MBA lecturer would recognise. But they have the kind of family

plan that has worked well for countless Chinese migrants who have established new homes where they have created fresh wealth while keeping hold of their culture.

Liu arrived in November, taking over a business selling traditional Chinese rosewood furniture that she and her husband had bought from Allen Siu two months earlier. Siu, originally from Hong Kong, had set up the business in Blackburn in east Melbourne 16 years ago. He had migrated to Australia 24 years before that, and has been kept on by Liu, in part because he speaks English, and she is only just starting to learn the language.

She and her husband come from Wuhan, a Yangtze River city of 10 million in China's heartland. He is running a factory where the furniture is hand-carved and assembled with no nails or screws -- in the southern city of Zhongshan in Guangdong province, one of China's core industrial zones.

They operated a furniture, wooden flooring and interior decoration business in Wuhan for 20 years before taking over the factory in Zhongshan.

Their children, a daughter aged 25 and son aged 24, are still in Wuhan, studying at universities.

Under the visa category she has been granted, she should qualify for permanent residency after two years of running her business, and could then apply for citizenship four years after that.

Business migration is family migration, with the nuclear family all entitled to come and go.

The family's aim is that Liu's husband, who is visiting Australia every month, will follow her to settle here once the business has settled into a successful pattern.

"Our main customers are Chinese," she says. But she is now considering advertising for an employee who can sell to "mainstream" English-speaking Australians.

She is receiving a new container of furniture from her husband later this month.

Typically, she says, an item that retails to their customers in southern China for $800 will cost a further $1200 to ship and import to Australia, marking the price up beyond $2000.

But if the item is shipped in a container they fill themselves the logistics cost totals only about $400.

Liu's husband is starting to look for a manager to run the factory in Zhongshan, anticipating a shift to Melbourne full-time. "We want to live here for the rest of our lives," she says.