More than 31,400 people have signed an online petition with the goal of toughen the regulations for foreign property Investment in Australia.
Initiated by Simon Hosking on the popular change.org website, the petition calls on the Australian government to introduce more thorough testing of foreign buyers and purchases, and a toughening of regulations by the Foreign Investment Review Board.
Citing foreign property buying restrictions elsewhere, Hosking wrote: “I would not be able to buy property in China, Sri Lanka with 100 percent tax on foreign freehold purchases, Thailand and Singapore generally prohibited with strict limitations, Indonesia prohibited and many emerging economies requiring citizenship.”
He also noted widespread concern that current regulations are either inadequately enforced or widely flouted.
The Australian Treasury said, according to Hosking, it is investigating 33 cases where a foreigner has purchased an established home – which is banned in all but a narrow range of circumstances – including several “high value” purchases. The figure amounts to less than 1 percent of the more than 5,000 foreign purchases of established homes since March.
Currently the only situation in which foreigners can purchase an established home here is if they are temporarily residing in Australia, and even then the property must be sold within three months of the buyer returning to their homeland.
The Australian newspaper recently revealed a loophole that is being exploited by wealthy foreigners looking to park cash in the Australian housing market. In some cases they are using their children studying in Australia, or lawyers or other service providers, as investor proxies.
Citing media comment, he added: “Until recently, the lack of compliance has been largely ignored, but media interest and rising prices have increased the pressure on MPs to act on these practices. Foreigners are laughing at us.”
When 50,000 signatures have been recorded the petition will be delivered to Executive Members of the Foreign Investment Review Board in Canberra.
Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru Group, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email andrew@propertyguru.com.
