Australia is to impose a dramatic rise in fees on foreign buyers of existing homes who leave them empty, the government said yesterday as it tries to ease a rental crisis.
The center-left Labor government said it would introduce new legislation next year to help alleviate tight supply that has left many renters struggling to find somewhere to live.
As supply dwindled, rental prices surged 7.6 percent in Australia in the year to Sept. 30, the sharpest increase in 14 years, official statistics show.
Photo: Bloomberg
“There are too many properties empty around Australia,” Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers said in an interview with Sky News Australia. “There are not enough homes available to Australians who desperately need them.”
The measures aim to push foreigners to invest in new housing developments instead of buying existing stock, the government said in a statement.
Foreigners are already barred from purchasing established homes in Australia unless they live in the country for work or study, and they are usually required to sell the homes when they leave.
To buy an existing home, foreigners currently pay a foreign investment fee that varies depending on the home price — for example, A$28,200 (US$18,558) for a median-priced Sydney home of a little over A$1 million.
Under the new scheme, the fee would be tripled.
In addition, foreign owners of established homes that are vacant for more than six months would face a higher annual vacancy fee.
That fee — now the same level as the foreign investment fee — would be doubled under the new plan.
The overall effect of the double blow would be a sixfold increase in annual fees for foreigners who leave existing homes vacant.
However, it is unclear if foreign ownership of existing homes in Australia is a big problem for the rental market. Chalmers said vacancy fees imposed on foreign owners of established homes raised only about A$5 million a year.
One report indicated there were just 23 such “breaches” in the past year, Chalmers said, although he believed the numbers “are likely to be underdone.” The government said it would also lower the fees for foreign investors in build-to-rent projects.
Semiconductor business between Taiwan and the US is a “win-win” model for both sides given the high level of complementarity, the government said yesterday responding to tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Taiwan is a key link in the global technology supply chain for companies such as Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp. Trump said on Monday he plans to impose tariffs on imported chips, pharmaceuticals and steel in an effort to get the producers to make them in the US. “Taiwan and the US semiconductor and other technology industries
SMALL AND EFFICIENT: The Chinese AI app’s initial success has spurred worries in the US that its tech giants’ massive AI spending needs re-evaluation, a market strategist said Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek’s (深度求索) eponymous AI assistant rocketed to the top of Apple Inc’s iPhone download charts, stirring doubts in Silicon Valley about the strength of the US’ technological dominance. The app’s underlying AI model is widely seen as competitive with OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc’s latest. Its claim that it cost much less to train and develop triggered share moves across Asia’s supply chain. Chinese tech firms linked to DeepSeek, such as Iflytek Co (科大訊飛), surged yesterday, while chipmaking tool makers like Advantest Corp slumped on the potential threat to demand for Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators. US stock
The US Federal Reserve is expected to announce a pause in rate cuts on Wednesday, as policymakers look to continue tackling inflation under close and vocal scrutiny from US President Donald Trump. The Fed cut its key lending rate by a full percentage point in the final four months of last year and indicated it would move more cautiously going forward amid an uptick in inflation away from its long-term target of 2 percent. “I think they will do nothing, and I think they should do nothing,” Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis former president Jim Bullard said. “I think the
SUBSIDIES: The nominee for commerce secretary indicated the Trump administration wants to put its stamp on the plan, but not unravel it entirely US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency in charge of a US$52 billion semiconductor subsidy program declined to give it unqualified support, raising questions about the disbursement of funds to companies like Intel Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電). “I can’t say that I can honor something I haven’t read,” Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, said of the binding CHIPS and Science Act awards in a confirmation hearing on Wednesday. “To the extent monies have been disbursed, I would commit to rigorously enforcing documents that have been signed by those companies to make sure we get
RSS