Australia yesterday clamped down on foreigners buying property after complaints that a rapid influx of Asian money had helped make its housing among the most expensive in the world.
The government re-imposed tough rules relaxed in 2008 that say temporary residents need permission to buy homes and must sell when they leave, while foreigners investing from abroad can only buy new properties.
The rules are backed by stiff new penalties including compulsory sell orders, as well as expanded monitoring and a crackdown on real estate agents who help foreigners flout the rules.
They follow growing disquiet that ordinary Australians are being priced out of the market after a decade-long property boom that has accelerated over the past year.
“We want to make sure that Australian working families are not being priced out of their own family homes. That is why we have acted in the way in which we have done,” Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said.
“We want to make sure that foreign speculators are not going to force up prices for Australians seeking to buy their own home, buy their first home and we think this is the right course of action,” he said.
House prices have been red-hot in Australia’s major cities, especially Sydney and Melbourne and also Perth, center of the country’s booming minerals exports to Asia.
Victoria state, whose capital is Melbourne, smashed the A$1 billion (US$925 million) weekly sales barrier last month, while Rupert Murdoch’s son Lachlan landed a record A$23 million property at a Sydney auction in November.
Australia’s opposition has said foreign investors are outbidding locals at house auctions, while media reports refer to cashed-up Asian buyers snapping up homes for their children studying in the country.
However, experts also blame a lack of housing supply and say government hand-outs, including grants for first-time buyers, have inflated prices.
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