I thought Australia had laws forbidding foreign nationals from owning real estate?
RE: I thought Australia had laws forbidding foreign nationals from owning real estate?
There are many ways to doit.
Australia has an Immigration program that allows “investors” who “invest” at least $500,000 ( last I heard ) in order to create jobs to apply for permanent residency.
Of course with a permanent residency, you can buy property.
Guess who have the money to “invest”....
Also, the Australian Government insists that all applications from foreign citizens or companies to buy residential real estate (either already developed - such as houses and apartments - to be developed, to be redeveloped or existing only at plan stage) are put before the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB), one of its advisory boards.
This advisory board reports to Treasury and reviews all applications by to purchase residential real estate, no matter what the value of the intended purchase is, by anyone who is NOT an Australian citizen, an approved migrant, a permanent resident of Australia, a foreign national holding a permanent visa or a person who, despite being a foreign citizen, is entitled to permanent residence status in Australia, should they take it up, such as a citizen of New Zealand. These people are holders of “special category visas”.
Thirty days is needed for an application to be looked at by the FIRB. There are no “general” approvals available. An approval can only be granted on a specifically nominated property. Therefore, real estate contracts with foreign citizens must contain a clause saying that going ahead with the purchase is conditional upon getting FIRB approval and that 30 days must be allowed for that approval to be granted or denied.