Trevski

With good news the FRIB has now allowed anyone living in Australia or any other country to buy any home, new or old.
This now means that you can be living in UK and buy a home in Australia and benefit from the housing boom and the rental market.
At present a four bed low set home in North Lakes/ Mango Hill are selling for around $400/$450 and the rent you will get is around $450/460 per week, so even if you cant migrate at the present time you can buy in Australia and use the home when you are ready to move to Australia.
A example of what a real estate will charge you to look after your home is approx 6% of the weekly rent.
If you have any questions please ask

lapin_windstar

Huh? That's not what the FIRB's website says:

There are some exemptions but not enough to make what you said accurate. Or has there been some new annoucement that changes what's still on the website?

Trevski

It is to be updated but it has been made public even on the news channels here in oz,it means that people can have a loan in the UK for a house in oz

pomtastic

How comes local investors aren't snapping up the North Lakes/Mango Hills homes, problems selling them by any chance? There's plenty of money sitting on the sidelines and yet you have to get overseas investors to have a look!!

Trevski

I can only say about some homes near to where i live and in the UK people have heard on North lakes, but unlike them i would rather not live on North lakes, i do live in mango hill that gives us larger blocks and some great bush land behind us
I would agree with you that there are better places that would give a better return on your investment

copa

That's really bad news..

Deancm

That's not what I heard on the news. I heard they were cracking down on overseas investors buying residential property.

pomtastic

That's the Govt just jawboning because it has become an issue with the masses and an election is looming.

At the end of the day, more money is needed to be brought in Australia, it keeps the housing ponzi scheme going as too many investors, first home buyers are leveraged up to the max and any small fall in house prices would be felt by the Aussie banking system.

lapin_windstar

That's weird 'cause "here in Oz", the big story in real estate has been the opposition/media suggestion that foreign buyers are inflating house prices (link: http://www.theage.com.au/national/ho...0331-revk.html ) and undermining RBA interest rate changes (link: http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...ices-jump.html ) , although the government has been denying it's a critical problem so far (link http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...section=justin ). And despite all that, none of them mentioned any recent relaxation by FIRB, even though you would have thought it would provide a prime opportunity for bashing the government for further liberalising foreign property ownership. And I have to say that I didn't find any announcement from FIRB mentioned on Google news.

So...would you happen to have a link or further information? Is it possible that in your original post you may have been talking in broader, introductory terms than the slightly more technical reality?

RenShen

The idea of overseas landlords buying and renting out property in Australia does not sound appealing to me. However, I think it WILL be good news for people here on temp visas who do not want to throw money away renting.

We are here on a 457 visa with a view to becoming permanent. We bought our house here a year ago but only after much argy bargy with the FIRB people. I would have been heartbroken if we had to rent until we got PR (which is still a way off).

NedKelly

Benefit? What boom? With interest rates going up and rental income not even covering the mortgage, buying an investment property is the quickest way to the poor house.

NedKelly

Why buy when it is cheaper to rent?

pomtastic

Renting is half the price of buying. I'd rather live in a decent suburb with good schools and infrastructure than a bogan one so I can just say 'I'm a home owner'.

Just say the folks on a temp visa decide to go home in 2 years? Their house could of fallen in value by 5-10%, they would have estate agents fees to pay (expensive in Aus $10 - $30K) and wouldn't of paid off any mortgage principal after 2 years. They'd be in for a big lump sum loss and would of been better off renting at a cheaper price than owning and saving the extra in a bank account.

pomtastic

Say the temp visa people bought a house @ $500K, house devalues by just 5% and they have to pay an agent $20K to sell. They'd be looking at a $45K loss plus the other expenses of getting in and out, I'd say around $3K for settlement fees both ways.

NedKelly

Not to forget the stamp duty (upwards of $12K). Council Tax at $2000 a year plus a bit if maintenance & Insurance, add another couple of thousand a year. You must have rocks in you head to buy a house.