Foreign buyers to pay fees or get fined under new FIRB proposals

The Prime Minister and Treasurer today announced a raft of changes to laws that govern the foreign buyers purchasing Australian residential property.

In our opinion the objectives of the government is clear, government is trying to obtain visibility into the foreign purchases and provide local buyers an equal opportunity to purchase real estate. The fee proposed of $5,000 for property below $1 million and for any property over $1 million a fee of $10,000 for every million, is not expected to be a deterrent for cashed up foreign investors.

The biggest challenge for the regulators was the lack of visibility and data to understand the number of foreign purchases and the values. There was complaints raised that certain projects are exclusively marketed for overseas buyers and local buyers were never provided an opportunity to purchase.

The government is also pushing a for a civil penalty system with a range of fines for breaching the rules. The fines are proposed for foreign buyers, real estate agents, conveyancers as well as family members who assist any unlawful purchases.

Read the full news article at http://goo.gl/SIUMvy