The property pool for non-members

I was wondering about the elementary stages of buying a house for a foreign resident in other country and it raised my curiosity all the more when while driving my friends got into this discussion of what could be the possible complexities for a foreign resident to buy a real estate in Australia or there would be none<maybe it could be as effortless as it can get>.

So research says that the proportion of first home buyers have dipped down the lowest this year than in past 20 years. The actual number of first home buyers were around 6000 in Australia which was the lowest since February this year. But at the same time Investment lending took a leap this year which meant that the first home owners could not afford to purchase but because of relative affordability it was quite smooth for the investors to invest in properties. In a market where the local investors investment is on a high in, the foreign real estate investors are infusing their money in a ratio of one in every eight properties in this country. 

Now comes the question as to, "How effortless the sailing is or is going to be for the foreign investors?" A  non statutory body called FIRB(Foreign Investment Review Board-www.firb.gov.au) regulates and advice the Treasurer and Government on Australia's Foreign Investments and conducts its Administration. The guidelines mentioned on the FIRB website contains details regarding the conditions for a Temporary Resident as well as a Non Resident/Short term visa holder has to take into account before buying a house. The Government's policy as mentioned is to encourage foreign investment where it is increasing Australia's housing stock; which is channeling the foreign investment into "new housing" and bring benefits to local industry. Thus the conditions mentioned in the guidelines considers the above policy application in mind. 

This means if you are a temporary resident or a foreign buyer for that matter you can buy a new dwelling with application which is always approved in normal circumstances, also if you buy a vacant land it would normally be approved(condition being that the ongoing construction begins within 24 months). Its only when you want to purchase an already established dwelling and if you are a student or any other temporary visa holder, there is a restriction of buying it solely for your residential purpose and sell it once it ceases to be your residence. Whereas non residents cannot buy any established or second hand dwellings. This still makes it clearly an easy job for foreign residents to buy property in Australia.

It would be interesting to study the tax effects in Australia for the same for the foreign residents. Would get back with that soon. For now i should go and worry about my dinner.