gbarker

Can anyone point me in the right direction for information & legislation on buying a house in Australia, please - particularly with regards to restrictions for people on various types of visa (ie PR, STNI, or Student).

magnetman

Try Pommiesheilas suggestion below (www.homepath.com.au)

gbarker

tried homepath.com.au but couldn't find any info relating to purchasing rules & regs. Anyone else got any good ideas?

Sandra

Try a search on this site for relevant links, will have a look also. You have to apply to buy a house from the government if you are on any temporary visa, and the usual form is they only approve when the property will be your primary residence. Everyone on PR visas is allowed to buy without this application restriction and can even be awarded the first home buyers award of $7000 if buying their first home and primary residence in Aus. I know the applications for home buying are on the web somewhere?

Useful links maybe

http://www.osr.nsw.gov.au/firsthome/index.htm

http://websites.golden-orb.com/reale...lia/100104.php

all the forms and further information is avaliable here

http://www.firb.gov.au/

have fun

pommiesheila

If you are on a temporary visa (i.e. not PR), then you would need to get approval from the FIRB (Foreign Investment Review Board). When we bought our house over here (we're currently on 457 Business Visa awaiting PR - if we stay that long...) it was a simple matter of filling in an uncomplicated form (not many of those in Australia!!!) sending it off, and waiting around 10 days to get approval. I think it is mostly a "rubber stamp" job in most cases.