Ahead of the federal election scheduled for April to May this year, the majority of Australians support the opposition Coalition's policy to prevent foreign investors from buying Australian homes.
On the 29th (local time), the Sydney Morning Herald cited a survey conducted by polling agency Resolve Strategic, reporting that 69% of voters supported the opposition's proposed ban on foreign investors purchasing homes.
This policy has gained broad support across political lines as a means to expand opportunities for Australians to own their own homes. Even among supporters of the ruling Labor Party, 60% expressed approval despite it being an opposition proposal. Only 9% of all respondents opposed the policy, while 22% withheld their opinion. In another question, 47% supported making the policy permanent, whereas only 29% agreed to a temporary implementation. Notably, 73% of voters in marginal electorates supported the policy, suggesting it could influence the election outcome.
The survey, conducted from January 15 to 21, involved 1,616 participants and reflected the Australian population distribution within a margin of error of ±2.4%.
The Labor government assessed that since stringent regulations such as investment application fees and vacancy charges for foreign investors are already in place, the opposition's proposal would be insufficient to have a substantial impact on the real estate market.
As the two major parties hold completely different positions, this issue has emerged as a key election topic alongside immigration reduction, mortgage guarantee policies, and expansion of housing construction using federal funds.
According to data from the Australian Federal Treasury, foreign investors purchased a total of 5,360 homes by June 2023. The transaction amount reached AUD 4.9 billion (approximately KRW 4.5 trillion). Three-quarters of these purchases were concentrated in Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland.
In the opposition's response speech to the government budget in May last year, Coalition leader Peter Dutton stated, “It is unfair that Australians are losing out to foreigners in the home-buying competition,” and announced, “As the first step of a two-phase plan to increase housing supply, foreign investors and temporary residents will be prohibited from buying existing homes in Australia for the next two years.” He also expressed intentions to significantly reduce the annual number of immigrants from the current 185,000 to 140,000 over the next two years and to cut the number of international students.
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers criticized Dutton’s proposed ban on foreign investors purchasing homes as an “ill-considered proposal,” emphasizing, “We already have strong regulations on foreign home purchases and have significantly increased application fees paid to the government to further strengthen these measures.”
The Australian government tripled the application fee foreign buyers must pay before purchasing an existing home in 2023 and doubled the vacancy charges applied after purchase. Consequently, foreign buyers aiming to purchase homes priced between AUD 2 million and 3 million must pay an application fee of AUD 177,000. If the property is not occupied or rented out for more than 183 days annually after purchase, vacancy charges equal to the application fee are imposed.
Jung Dong-chul, Hanho Times Reporter
※This article was written using content provided by Hanho Times (www.hanhotimes.com).
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