noofie

Hi,

Just wondered if anyone has bought a house in Australia before getting visa granted - not sure if you can even do it before.

Would love any advice.

Looking at Coomera on the Gold Coast.

Thanks
Jackie

Wendy

Not done it myself, but you would need approval from the FIRB http://firb.gov.au/content/default.asp

One thing I will say though is that it isn't cheap to buy and sell houses here, and if you bought something without actually looking at it, then decided it wasn't really what you wanted, it would cost you a lot to sell it again.

(They are very good with the photo's out here, and the house doesn't always look like it does in the picture )

If you have someone you trust to look at the property for you then it's not too bad, but if not personally I'd wait until you're here.

MaggieM

Totally agree with Wendy, you'd have to have someone you trust completely, but I wouldn't buy a house that my husband hadn't seen too, and vice versa.

A house near us is up for sale. They're using the photos of it when it was first built four years ago. It's been a rental for all of that time. Anyone buying it before actually seeing it is going to be in for a big shock.

Maggie

moneypenny20

Why would you even consider buying a place in a country you don't even know you are going to be able to live in?

chris and farideh

Today we went & look at the place near our place, which was on the market for $550.000, but you wouldnt believe how awful it was, & the pictures didnt look half bad, they turned the garage into a granny flat, so the house really was built as 3 bedroom, but they were selling it for 5 bedrooms, can you imagined buying that house without seeing it & just going by the picture, you'll be in for a shock of your life.

Halo

Check out this thread for general advice re buying an investment property in Oz, in particular post 39.

noofie

Thanks for all your replies. I probably wasn't very clear in my initial post. Of course we wouldn't dream of buying a house that we hadn't seen - we have been out and had a look and of course would do so again before buying. I have to agree as well some of the photo's used by estate agents are very mis leading.

What we really wanted to know is CAN you buy before you are resident in a country - sort of an investment property.

Thanks again.

kaz101

Hi Noofie,

Yes you certainly can since that's what we did. We are property investors and at the time we were attracted to Australia by the exchange rates since back then it was nearly 3 AUD to 1 GBP!

As investors though you need to be aware of a few things....
Most investment properties are apartments since it's easier to get FIRB approval on new builds rather than somewhere that an Aussie has lived in.
If buying apartments they can be in BIG blocks (we bought in Melbourne and there were loads of blocks going up at the same time).
You will probably only get a mortgage (home loan) of up to 70% Loan to value (LVR) since you don't live in Australia yet.
If your property is negatively geared (you are losing money on it) then you will receive tax credits on that loss when you move to Australia.
A lot of properties in Australia appear to be negatively geared since the tax credits off set the higher tax bills from the wages although if you are serious in investing in several properties you won't be able to take losses on all your properties unless you are earning a lot.
Do your due diligence just as if you were buying locally. The salesman is just that, selling the property, so they may not tell you everything you need to know.
The laws are different for every state so know what the laws are in the state you are buying in since taxes may be different.
If you buy an investment property you will still be able to claim FHOG (First time home owners grant) if they have it in your state where you settle as long as as you stay in the house for a required amount of time.

If there's anything else you want to know just ask and if I don't know I'll try to point you in the right direction.

Hope that helped.

Karen

Halo

LOL. Wendy answered that in the very first line of the first reply when she referred you to the FIRB website - yes as long as you comply with the rules contained there and obtain the appropriate consents. The remainder was further advice elaborating on from that starting point.