[Crest]

Is the Federal Government covering up the level of foreign investment in Residential RealEstate? An interesting article.



http://smh.domain.co...1230-1pf7c.html

Quote

Secret government business
December 30, 2011


The Federal Government was holding plenty of documents that were pertinent to my freedom of information request — I just wasn’t going to get any of them.

....

So what was the FOI targeted at... Troop movements in Afghanistan? The prime minister’s private schedule? The names of ASIO’s anti-terrorism informants?

No, it was a request for some basic facts and figures about the state of foreign investment in Australia’s residential real estate market.

Like the number of temporary residents who’ve purchased established dwellings around the country — and, specifically, how many times people have been pinged for breaking the rules. Not individual names and addresses, mind you, just general stats about how the enforcement regime has been working.

This post has been edited by Crest: 02 January 2012 - 08:49 AM

[staringclown]

The only logical conclusion is that the government has done sod all in enforcing the foreign investment rules? It's blatantly political.

Vedelago had another article in november questioning why the government data in victoria wasn't publicly available. Illustrates the hypocrisy perfectly.

Whose data? Your data.

[Crest]

staringclown, on 02 January 2012 - 09:21 AM, said:

The only logical conclusion is that the government has done sod all in enforcing the foreign investment rules? It's blatantly political.

Vedelago had another article in november questioning why the government data in victoria wasn't publicly available. Illustrates the hypocrisy perfectly.

Whose data? Your data.

My understanding of the foreign investment changes was that they were nothing more than a rubber stamp. Temporary residents just needed approval to buy. It was one of those "we need to look like we are doing something" policies at a time when house prices were ballooning again.

The government possibly doesnt want to release information because the policy did little/nothing to stop o/s money inflating house prices despite K Rudds huffing and puffing about housing affordability at the time. This one will be interesting to follow. I remember at the time of the changes most on the boards were sceptical about what the changes would achieve.

[staringclown]

Crest, on 02 January 2012 - 06:36 PM, said:

My understanding of the foreign investment changes was that they were nothing more than a rubber stamp. Temporary residents just needed approval to buy. It was one of those "we need to look like we are doing something" policies at a time when house prices were ballooning again.

The government possibly doesnt want to release information because the policy did little/nothing to stop o/s money inflating house prices despite K Rudds huffing and puffing about housing affordability at the time. This one will be interesting to follow. I remember at the time of the changes most on the boards were sceptical about what the changes would achieve.

Judging by this business spectator article it's not just the brisbane unit market that is being held up by foreign investors. Looks like Sydney and Melbourne as well.

Quote

Mainland Chinese have dominated the purchases of inner Sydney apartments and, to a lesser extent, Melbourne apartments. In the last month or so the Chinese have halved their buying of apartments and if that accelerates, it will push down the prices of apartments in our two major cities (primarily in Sydney). We could be looking at a 10 per cent fall. In turn, that will spread to apartment blocks outside the inner city and ordinary houses. But again the effect is manageable.

The greatest danger is that a sizeable proportion of the multitude of inner Sydney and Melbourne apartments that have been bought off the plan by mainland Chinese are not consummated and the Chinese simply walk away and accept the loss of their deposit.