TODAY we got a tipoff about an article in ‘The Australian’ Business section ‘Foreign Buyer Drought hits Units’ … online it is under the headline: Covid squeezes apartment pipeline as foreign investors stay home The report opens with ‘Chinese residential property investment shrunk to the lowest levels in seven years during the Pandemic causing the supply of pipeline of apartments to dwindle over the coming years’.  What does that say? It says, as we know, that the pipeline of apartments are built for the Chinese market. How did this come about?  The Foreign Investment Review Board ruling that allows developers to sell 100% of ‘new homes’ to overseas buyers … and a whole raft of temporary visas facilitating them to fly in and buy, or online through Juwai, or through an onshore Proxy! This ruling is still current as with the second tranche of the Anti-Money Laundering Laws through which the Morrison Government exempted the Real Estate Gatekeepers in October 2018! DESPITE a whole Cohort of Australians notably those aged under 35 being locked out of home ownership this lot want Chinese buyers to return*! As reported today in the Sydney Morning Herald, ‘Soaring House Prices: an economic threat eating away the Future’ and making our national economy less stable and lowering productivity.  It was the huge influx of Chinese buyers that also escalated house prices esp. between 2015 and 2017! And now with 60% of First Home Buyers funded by Parents or Grandparents, low interest rates, subsidies of Government grants house prices have again escalated locking out those who have not got wealthy parents. View: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/soaring-house-prices-an-economic-threat-eating-away-the-future-20210614-p580s2.html?fbclid=IwAR2hfBtlBlVTG1soRTaj3IDVUAq0o4dt_DAj2jflVUTuZyEpgoX159ZUhIU In 2014 developers spent $11.3Bn; in 2019 $5.03Bn; in 2020 $4Bn on residential sites.  Overseas buying fell to less than $.5Bn which still represents a loss of housing for Australians … Apartment developers so addicted to this foreign buyer market that they are concerned that only 86,400 new apartments are planned for across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and Perth up to 2024 It would appear following the ‘towers cracking up’ followed by the Pandemic that many have moved out of high-rise apartments seeking the space and freedom of a house and garden which has prompted developers to shift to building boutique apartments given low rates and a housing shortage. The developer lobby group, the Property Council of Australia (for which Scott Morrison, the PM wrote the policy prior to entering politics) has called for all our State Governments to stimulate this sector!  By reducing international investor surcharges, and improvements in planning processes! Chief Executive Ken Morrison proposed that 30,000 jobs could be at risk across Australia, and that apartment construction was a ‘critical component  of Australia’s future housing supply and a vital job creator for our economy.’ Never mind that currently there is a shortage of building materials much of which are imported, that project home developments have become more expensive due to this shortage and trades being in short supply (due to the demise of TAFE), and that aspiring home owners prefer to buy these house and land packages! And what of the shortage of trades to do home maintenance projects across our suburbs? Morrison submits that unless policy changes are made that the apartment building sector will lose 30,000 jobs and produce $5.9Bn less in housing over the next four years. And that inevitably immigration would return!  This is despite all the media today raising concerns about those Australians aged under 35 being locked out of home ownership! Morrison submits that international buyers and Build-to-Rent investors will be key to new projects along with planning and stamp duty * relief. It would seem that due to this sector previously seeking cheaper building supplies esp. from China that the Pandemic had led to shortages and price increases for end users! PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH OTHERS! SEND your OBJECTIONS TO LOCAL MPs for restoration of the housing development market for Australians!