Recently, Australia's ** official announced a blockbuster news:
** Will be raised for foreign investors
The application fee for buying a property in Australia.
Not only that, but for some foreign buyers who have bought a house in Australia but don't live thereAustralia** will increase the vacancy feeThis would make a $100-$2 million house with an annual vacancy fee of up to $16$920,000.
As soon as this bombshell news came out, it unsurprisingly caused an uproar. There is no doubt that such a measure will significantly increase the cost of buying a home in Australia for foreign buyers, including Chinese who have been very keen to buy property in Australia in recent years.
Foreigners buying a house in Australia:
The application fee and vacancy fee have all been raised
According to Australia**, the Labor Party will seek legislative reform next year, and the proposal will.
When a foreign investor buys a completed house
The application fee paid is tripled.
If the property is vacant, i.e. unoccupied and not put on the rental marketThe application fee for the house will be increased by three times
The basis is doubled again as a vacancy fee.
This means that once the legislation is passed, foreign homeowners could face a six-fold vacancy fine.
At present, the application fee for foreign investors to purchase fixed housing in Australia is linked to the property**. The housing application fee is $2 between $1 million and $2 million$820,000, and the application fee for a home between this price range will be as high as $8 after the reform$460,000 and the vacancy fee will be as high as $16$920,000.
According to the regulations, the new measures only apply to existing housing purchased after May 2017. The main reason for the tightening of the foreign investment law is to free up more foreign investment to enter the rental market.
At the same time, in order to encourage foreign investors to participate in the construction of new housing development projects and promote investment in new housing, the Australian Commonwealth** will reduce the investment cost of "build and lease" projects to keep them at a minimum commercial level.
*In a statement announcing the changes, Jim Chalmers and Housing Minister Julie Collins said the changes would be complemented by stronger enforcement action to ensure the rules are followed.
"These changes further encourage foreigners to invest in the construction of new properties and help ensure that those who are approved follow the rules," they said in a statement. ”Housing prices remain high in Australia
The housing crisis continues
The Labor Party's reform measure is undoubtedly aimed at the current dilemma of Australia's difficulty in buying, renting, and housing.
In the past two years, the housing problem has almost become a nightmare for the federal **.
According to statistics, since 2000, Australia's house prices have increased by about 6% per year, but wages have not kept pace with house prices, with an average annual growth rate of only about 3%.
As a result, it has become several times more difficult for young people in Australia to own a house of their own like their parents, and it is difficult to even make a down payment on their own. For those with an average income, buying a home has become a distant dream. Even this dream is getting more and more distant every year.
A report released earlier this year by the Australian Institute of Housing and Urban Studies showed that homeownership among young Australians has been declining over the past two decades.
Many young people who want to buy a home have to work longer hours to save enough for a down payment. The Reserve Bank of Australia's continuous interest rate hikes have not only failed to curb the continuous housing prices, but also put many people who have been burdened with housing prices into an embarrassment.
Many ordinary families in Australia can only live in tents because they can't afford to rent a house.
The housing situation is so dire that some in other parties believe that the increase in fees will not solve the problemThe Labour Party should ban it immediately
Foreigners buying a house in Australia:
ABC's financial critic Alan Kohler gave a more nervous assessment of the reality of housing in Australia, arguing that high housing prices and income** have exacerbated the solidification of social class in Australia.
Education and work are no longer able to make a young person rich, and a rich life depends more on what kind of house and wealth he can inherit from his parents. There are many people who can't live in houses, and at the same time, there are many houses that are empty and unoccupied, which is naturally not a normal phenomenon.
The main goal of this vacancy fee increase for foreign investors is to enable more** to flow into the rental market.
Federal **Jim Chalmers stated:
Raising the vacancy fee will encourage foreign investors to offer their vacant properties to renters. ”
However, while the increase in fees may encourage more foreigners to rent out their homes, this in itself has little impact on **and rent**. Because the total number of houses has not increased substantially.
Foreigners already face many hurdles when buying an existing property, and those who do buy a property must ** property once they leave Australia if they are not permanent residents.
At the same time, in order to control housing prices and crack down on speculators, Australia has just introduced a new ** not long ago: all renovators and speculative "house speculators" who buy and sell properties in order to make quick profits may want to do so.
A marginal tax rate of up to 47% is levied.
This means that even if they hold the property for 12 months or more, they will lose their 50% capital gains tax discount. The capital gains tax discount allows homeowners to pay only half the tax on net capital gains.
A large number of Chinese will be severely affected
In recent years, Chinese people have been particularly fond of buying houses in Australia, and Chinese buyers are definitely the main force in the group of foreigners buying houses in Australia.
Treasury data shows that overseas buyers are pouring back into the property markets in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Compared to last year, the number of approvals increased by 40%, with the largest number of buyers from China and Vietnam.
A residential property survey conducted by NAB last week showed that real estate professionals estimate that the share of foreign buyers in total market sales has risen for the fourth consecutive quarter, reaching a five-and-a-half-year high. The second quarter report released by Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board shows that interest in residential real estate is accelerating among Chinese investorsThis one quarter alone
826 transactions approved,
Valued at $1.1 billion.
And this figure is only a statistic of Chinese mainland buyers.
Buyers from Hong Kong are counted separately and the data shows that buyers from Hong Kong were approved to purchase properties worth a total of $600 million.
According to the AFR, managers of many Australian real estate agencies said that there are a lot of buyers from China, and the purpose of buyers has also changed, from investment to self-occupation. However, many Chinese buyers will buy more than just one home, and some people want to invest in addition to living in it. This means that if the reform is successful, it will be a significant additional expense for a large number of Chinese buyers.
Of course, for some powerful investors, the increase in application fees and vacancy fees may not be a problem, but the investment effect will also be greatly reduced. Impression Conclusion
Labour** had a record low approval rating in the last voter poll, with a large number of voters expressing dissatisfaction with Albane**.
In the past few days, we have taken action many times to crack down on speculators, drastically reduce the number of immigrants, and impose additional taxes on foreign buyers.
Once passed, the reform measures for foreign home buyers may not be able to immediately save the Australian housing market, but the impact on Chinese home buyers is predictable.
However, it is difficult to directly conclude whether this behavior will dampen the enthusiasm of Chinese buyers for Australia.