FOREIGN students and temporary residents will face tough new rules when buying a house and will have to sell on leaving Australia.
The Federal Government’s crackdown, to be announced today, reverses its December 2008 decision to relax foreign ownership rules.
Bowing to public pressure, the Government will also introduce a hotline for concerned locals to “dob in” foreigners they suspect of breaching the rules.
Under the rules, temporary residents and foreign students will be:
SCREENED by the Foreign Investment Review Board to determine if they will be allowed to buy a property.
FORCED to sell property when they leave Australia.
PUNISHED if they do not sell by a government-ordered sale plus confiscation of any capital gain.
REQUIRED to build on vacant land within two years of purchase to stop “land banking”. Failure to do so would also lead to a government-ordered sale.
There have been growing claims that real estate prices have been forced up by wealthy Asian families, especially from China and Korea, buying up property and outbidding locals at auctions.
The Government is concerned by anecdotal reports that foreigners are “collecting” houses, often in the same street, and leaving them empty when there is a shortage of housing.
Full story: http://ow.ly/1H6eF
Phillip Hudson – Herald Sun
