It was reported previously that Australia has been keen with the rules on foreign property purchases and the existence of illegal foreign property buyers in their country. According to reuters, Australia is being plagued by properties being purchased illegally through the use of 'shelf companies' and other 'illegal leasing' methods in order to hide foreign ownership. It was also reported that with their current foreign real estate data, China is considered as the top buyers in the market even overtaking "the United States to become the largest source of foreign investment in Australia last year, driven by a surge in real estate buys."
As a result of the said irregularities and presence of illegal foreign property buyers, the Foreign Investment Review Board is investigating 195 cases of purchases by foreign investors. Strong and new punishments were also crafted as a response to the growing foreign investments of Australia, and these new laws mainly apply to illegal foreign property buyers. To demonstrate the intensifying crackdown on foreign property buyers, Joe Hockey, Treasurer of Australia in a statement via reuters stated that "Foreign investors who think they may have broken the rules should come to us before we come to them." He also added via bfm that foreign buyers should sell their properties within a year.
With this turn of events and the Treasury's ability to detect breaches, especially on foreign property purchases being intensified, locals may soon have wide array of choices to add into their portfolio. For Australians looking to invest in property may now avoid stretching of budget just to meet auction prices. With a possible rate in terms of foreign investment and the continuous foreign property crackdown, more properties are to be expected soon on the real estate market. But still expectations should not be in haste, for checking for anomalies may take time and comparing data would relatively be a tedious process.
