August 19, 2010 – Australia as a progressive and developing country in the world, has already reinstated property rules and laws since 2008, restricting foreign investors to a new home purchases, while giving them the chance to temporarily buy only existing housing while they are in Australia.
The policy and rules has been forced onto a foreign investors due to a major drop in auction clearance rates, especially in the top end housing markets of Melbourne and Sydney. Furthermore, the National Australia Bank said that there were about 250 respondents to the latest residential property survey saying that there was about 9 percent of all house purchases over the next twelve months, and the purchases was bought by the offshore buyers with the figure that is likely to be mirrored in the new-home market, which is not restricted with the off the plan property.
The National Australian Bank also made sure that there were about professional real estate agents and managers that will be able to conduct series of surveys. Chief economist Alan Oster of NAB yesterday admitted to being surprised at the result, which indicated overseas buyers would buy about 47,000 of the 520,000 properties likely to be traded across Australia in the next year.
He said, “We wondered about the figure, but that is what a range of property people told us.”
The restrictions on existing homes as a part of economic stimulus measures by the Rudd Government, was later reintroduced to slow down the paced of overheated market on property sale. Then the Real Estate Institute of Australia, backed the returned of restrictions and even point its finger on the Foregin Investment Review Board for not restricting the relaxed buyers.
“REIA undertook a survey which showed that agents, particularly in Melbourne, were suspicious of the number of foreign entrants into the marketplace, and whether those entrants were strictly adhering to guidelines,” president David Airey said.
Source: The Australian News
