Hello again!

This may sound a silly question, but we're emigrating in about 3 months to the Manly area (ish) - can we buy a property in Oz or do we have to rent for the first 2 years?

We're pretty sorted with everything else, but this is a grey area.

TA!

Hi Mate not 100% sure but if either you or your spouse/partner is an aussie citizen then there should be no probs, but if you are both brits then i think you have to ask the foriegn investment review board for permission to buy a property ! this might sound scary but apparently it is a straight forward procedure ,also I would think any real estate agent worth his salt would be able to point you in the right direction as well . hope this helps and Good Luck

If you're on a perm visa you can buy property straight away. However, if you are on a temp visa then you are looked upon as a foreign investor. That means that you have to get permission to buy and you can mainly only buy land and build or a brand new house which has never been lived in or previously sold.

Hope this helps

Thanks for help:

We're on a permanent VISA (been through whole emigration process, police, medicals etc etc). However, we have to stay there for 2 years to apply for citizenship.

Does this mean we can buy within these two years?

TA! (Sorry to sound stupid! )

Yeh don't worry as said earlier you can definatly buy straight away on that visa

good luck dave

Yep - no problems with perm visas at all , you don't have to have Oz citizenship to buy a house. Only issues are with temp visas.

Cheers Dave - I know where to come when I need a chippy!

You can not only buy a house, but probably also get the First Home Owners grant towards part of the buying costs

http://www.firsthome.gov.au/

Think of it as a $7k discount on the stamp duty (which is higher here).

Note that if you buy in Victoria and the house costs less than $500k then the Vic government will give you another $5k discount.

Cheers
Alistair

Whether a new migrant *should* buy straight away, or rent initially until settled in Australia and familiar with the area, is another question.

Jeremy

That's right

But if you are a first time buyer in NSW, and pay less than $500k there is no stamp duty