Foreign Investment Property

I found this article interesting. For 2 reasons. One is foreign investment, and how mis guided the Australian Government are in handling the situation. Secondly, it reminds us the importance of allowing greater immigration into Australia. With 5 million baby boomers retiring the Government have far fewer people paying tax, this hole of 5 million will not be filled with the birth to working age rate, so the only way to maintain the income from taxes the Government is earning is relaxing the immigration into Australia. This leads to the fact that many Australians are in denial if they believe the Government will provide a pension that can support life in 20 years time. The question people should ask themselves if it is not too late is the following…. Do I want to merely exist in retirement until I die, or do I want to live life in retirement??

The Prime Minister’s clamp-down on foreign investors in Australian real estate has been revealed as little more than a revenue-raising exercise. Initially it was proposed as a way to assist first-home buyers, but it has become increasingly clear that curtailing offshore buyers would do nothing to change the situation for first-time buyers. Foreign investors are a very small component of the Australian buying market. Their activity is primarily focused on Top End properties in the prestige suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne, and on high-rise apartments in the inner-city areas of our major cities. They are not competing with local first-time buyers. Restricting foreign buyers won’t change the price on a single house anywhere in Australia. So now Tony Abbott has switched the emphasis of his rhetoric to enforcement of the existing rules. As part of that, big fees will be charged on foreigners applying to buy Australian real estate and on developers seeking to sell to overseas buyers. It will create a small revenue gain for the Federal Government. Beyond that, there will be zero impact on Australian property markets and pricing levels. Terry Ryder