[quote=QSfamily;15578]
Quote:
Originally Posted by kaz101
Why is it that temp residents cannot buy existing properties? My friend in NSW told me the same thing but when we visited Perth, noone we spoke (Aussies) to were aware of that and my husband claims that when he popped into Westpac and enquired about mortgages, they didnt think it was an issue whether we bought an existing property or newbuild.
|
I've been told that these regulations came in because a lot of property was being bought by people who didn't live in Australia and the government wanted to control that.
Unless Aussies are used to dealing with migrants then they would not know about it. We know about it because we were buying property here when we lived in the UK and that's when we can across FIRB approval. Temp residents cannot buy existing property without FIRB approval and most Aussies either don't know or can't be bothered to do that. A lot of new property (such as blocks or apartments in Melbourne CBD) go through the FIRB approval process before they are put up for sale knowing that they will attract foreign investment. Only a certain amount of property is allowed to go to foreign investors and the rest has to go to Australians.
For more information see
FIRB: Residential
Regards,
Karen