A majority of residents in Sydney are opposed to foreign property ownership, according to a University of Sydney report. Buyers from Asia have flooded the market causing housing prices to increase drastically in the past few years. In addition to this, there are some concerns about Chinese buyers purchasing Australian real estate to launder money.
Over half of those surveyed responded that foreigners should not be allowed to purchase property in Australia with only 4 per cent strongly supporting foreign real estate ownership. A total of 64 per cent of people asked in the survey believe foreign investment is the reason housing prices in Australia have skyrocketed.
Investment from Asia, and China in particular, has grown since 2015. However, there is little evidence to connect the rising housing prices to the influx of Asian property buyers, shows data from the Australian Treasury. Real estate prices in Sydney jumped by 45 per cent between 2012 and 2015 and are up 18.4 per cent in the 1st quarter of 2017 when compared to the same period last year, reports the Asia Times.
Another concern about the increase in real investment from Chinese buyers in Australia is money laundering. Some Chinese citizens are believed to have used money from corruption to acquire international property. The Chinese government has launched 2 programs to catch allegedly corrupt citizens who have fled overseas and are tracking several suspects in Australia, according to Asia Times.
More than USD2.47 billion of money transfers made by Chinese investors have been investigated by Australian financial intelligence officials. Of this total, USD750 million has been placed in property investments. Individuals still have many ways to launder money in Australia, despite the efforts of the government to stop this practice. Real estate transactions continue to be one of the preferred methods of this, reports Transparency International. That’s because Australia has more gaps and loopholes in place than other countries.
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